{"sf1_id":1044029,"sf2_id":null,"title":"Vandals to Vanguards","author":"Crummles","words":36348,"posted_at":"2016-07-10T22:24:00.000Z","tags":["Action","Amnesia","Canine","Depressing","Depression","Desperation","Drama","Drugs","Emotion","Emotional","Fantasy","Fox","Gay Relationships","Girl","Insanity","Lagomorph","Lesbian","Love","Male","Mild Abuse","Mild Violence","No-Yiff","Novel","Nudity","Psychological","Rabbit","Rebellion","Sad","Squirrel","Suspense","Tragedy","Violence (Not In Yiff)","Wolf","corruption","dystopia","heartbreak","hiking"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1044029-vandals-to-vanguards","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/1044029","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=1044029\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"In the totalitarian dystopian city of Beltzgrad a rebellious rabbit, Elsie, regularly breaks curfew to throw colorful subversive art pieces up all over the dull grey metropolis she lives in. Whereas Her socially awkward fox girlfriend and childhood buddy, Roxanne, just wants to work with her electronics and have quiet evenings with her, but nothing ever seems to go to plan. Meanwhile Mica, a talented young soldier for the radical resistance group called The Defector's Haven, struggles with tortuous hallucinations and an unknown past.\n(some of the spacing and formatting shit might be a bit off because I just kinda copy-pasted from my pdf version)","content":"Chapter\nI: Chasing Rainbows\n\n Everything in\nBeltzgrad was uniform. The buildings all had a state-approved\nbrutalist aesthetic; tall grayscale concrete monsters with small\nwindows and high walls that were either poured out of the same molds\nor looked similar enough nobody would bother to check. Each street\nhad a number and each avenue had a letter and with a few exceptions\neach number or letter was exactly 100 meters away from the next in\nthe sequence. The trees planted in the streets were Thornless\nHoneylocust, and the trees planted in the parks were Elms. Choices\nwere easy because there were none; brands were abolished and the\nstate distributed everything. You would drive the car\nto the grocery store,\nbuy the detergent and\nthe cookies, maybe go\nto the bar and get the\ndrink or two before staggering home to the house\nor the apartment, puke\nin the bathtub and\npass out on the couch\nonly to wake up with the\nhangover and regret the\nnight before. Elsie walked slowly through the streets to work; not\nbecause she had time, she didn't, but because she was she was just\ntoo tired to run. Maybe it was the fatigue playing tricks on her but\nthe monitors seemed excessively skittish today. The monitors were\neffectively no more than flying interrogators, most people called\nthem finks. \"HALT!\" one boomed at her its iris flashing red,\n\"Identify your self!\"\n\n\"Elsie Nicole\nVedas. Ident Number ENV-25-3463-179.\" There was a moment of silence\nwhile the monitor processed the information. It bobbed lightly in the\ncool morning air, its processing power caught between trying to stay\nstable as the breeze changed direction and communicating with the\ndatabase that stored the information related to Elsie's\nidentification number. \"You're late for your employment duties,\nharvester.\" Elsie glanced at the top of her wrist for a moment as\nthe number 05:32 crawled across the face of one of her two watches.\n\"Only by two minutes\" she replied.\n\n\"Irrelevant!\"\nsnapped the fink, \"Your employer has been informed and today's\npay has been docked 30%!\"\n\n\"But-.\"\n\n\"Proceed to the\nhydroponics field and report in for work within the next 3 minutes or\nyour contract will be terminated\" The fink's iris changed from a\ndeep red to a bright blue and it buzzed away. Elsie wasn't too\nupset, after all she didn't do her job for the money and she was\nonly half a block from work.\n\n Elsie's boss\nWalter had been waiting for her when she clocked in. The aged bulldog\nwas always forgiving of Elsie's tardiness, even through she seldom\nhad a good excuse. \"I just got a in ping about you, Ms. Vedas.\"\nhe said a low tone.\n\"The bus broke\ndown.\"\n\n\"You live six\nblocks away, Ms. Vedas.\"\n\"Well then I was\ncaught in a temporal rift and spent four years teaching a\nper-industrial village the merits of the steam engine, and just\nbefore they burned me for heresy the rift opened up again and dropped\nmy back at home exactly 5 minutes late.\"\n\"Knowing you\nthat's the more accurate story.\"\n\"I'm sorry Walt,\nhonest I am. I promise I won't be late again.\"\n\"I'm sure you\nwill.\"\n\n\"You know me too\nwell Walt.\" Elsie said with a smile as she tied her long ears back\nin a knot and began to stretch.\n\n\"Can't you just\nrun here, Ms. Vedas? I can't tell you how many times I've seen you\npractically crawling to work, and if you came here at the same\npace you move here I doubt you'd ever be late.\"\n\"I just want save\nmy a-game for the job,\" she said as she set a timer on the watch\nunder her wrist. \"You better get runnin' rabbit,\" she whispered\nto her self.\n\"Hey I want ask\nyou something,\" Walt said looking down at his phone.\n\n\"Five minutes.\"\nshe said to him.\n\n\"I was just-.\"\nhe began to say, but it was too late. She was already out the door\nand halfway across the massive hanger that enclosed the farm.\n\n\n Roxanne was sitting\nwith her feet on her work bench taking a short nap when Walter came\nwandering in. He tapped her on the shoulder and she snapped awake.\n\"Bluh! I was just... bored.\"\n\"Is there really\nthat little to do right now, Ms. Metz?\" He strolled over to his\ndesk and gazed at the CCTV monitors behind it.\n\"Sorry, Mr.\nBecker.\" She said with a shrug. \"No work orders right now, just\nchanged water filters last week, the computers are working fine,\nstill waiting on those new transistors to come in before I can start\nupgrading the nutrient vaporizers.\"\n\"Well there's this\npackage full of circuit boards that came in this morning. Is that\nanything?\" Walter pointed over his shoulder to an open box on his\ndesk.\n\"Oh! Yeah those\nare just some custom PCB's I ordered for a little personal project!\"\nRoxanne rushed over and inspected the tiny circuit boards.\n\"Guess it's best\nthat I don't know whatever goofy stuff you make with the things you\norder under the farm's name.\"\n\"It's all pretty\nharmless for the most part; laser pointers, transmitters to control\nlighting and thermostat and crap in my house, that kind of stuff.\"\nRoxanne hurried back to the work bench and flipped the on the switch\non a power strip, causing a bank of lights to come alive. As her\nsoldering iron gently hummed it set the tone of her mood like a\ntuning fork would set the tone of a choir.\n\"I'm just going to\nignore the part of that sentence where you said 'for the most part'.\"\nWalter turned around and pulled out his phone.\n\"That... would\nprobably be for the best.\" Roxanne pulled on a wristband with a\nlong cable and plugged it into a hole on the bottom of her workbench,\nthen she popped open a tool box full of electronic components and\nproceeded to pluck out all the various parts she wanted to use and\ncarefully set them in a neat row next to her.\n\"Hey could a\npicture I took with my phone be... like... tracked?\"\n\"Yeah probably,\nhave you connected to the internet with your phone yet?\" The vixen\nhunched over a large magnifying glass on a stand and carefully got\nher soldering work under way.\n\"No.\"\n\"Well so long as\nyou don't do that you should be fine. Would probably be best to\ndisable your wifi entirely if you're worried about it. Why?\"\n\"Just wondering.\"\nWalter rapidly tapped buttons on his phone.\n\"Well I'm not one\nto pry. So I'll just leave it at that.\"\n\"I'm sorry to lean\non you and your girlfriend so much for... knowledge.\" His timbre\nturned somewhat somber.\n\"whu-... uh.\"\nRoxanne put her iron down and turned to face the bulldog. \"What?\nWhere is this coming from?\"\n\"Well I'm not very\nknowledgeable about really anything, I'm just good with\nadministration and numbers and stuff, honestly.\" He nervously\npressed his fingertips together. \"You guys know so much about so\nmany things.\"\n\"It-... it's\nalright, Mr. Becker, really it is. We're glad to help whenever we\ncan.\" After a brief second of silence she continued. \"An- And I\nthink you're not giving yourself enough credit. You know a lot of\npractical stuff, whereas our knowledge is much more arcane and not\nreally useful most of the time. Unless it's electrical engineering or\ncomputers I can't really tell you much about anything.\"\n\n\"I still feel bad\nabout it.\"\n\n\"You shouldn't\nthough. We've leaned on you for your knowledge plenty as well.\nEspecially when it came to tax time.\"\n\"That's true I\nguess... Thanks.\"\n\"For what?\"\n\"For putting my\nanxieties to rest for a bit I guess? Just-... just generally thank\nyou I guess. You're a model employee, Ms. Metz.\" He stowed his\nphone and grabbed a large accordion binder pulling files out of it.\n\"Thank... you? Are\nyou going to be alright Mr. Becker?\"\n\"Should be.\" He\nsmiled at Roxanne, but she suspected that it was a false smile.\n\"Well Ms. Vedas is\nbetter at this talking thing than I am... Maybe you two can have a\ngood conversation later.\"\n\"I hope so. In any\ncase I should fill out this paperwork. You can go back to your laser\npointers or whatever you're doing today.\" Roxanne nodded sweetly\nand turned around again, quickly getting lost in her work.\n\n The screen\noverlooking the farm announced the workload: Raspberries and mangoes.\nThis news pleased Elsie to no end. She was running low on red, green,\nand yellow paint and now she had access to the things she needed to\nmake the proper pigments. She went to the mango grove first. Elsie\nworked her way from tree to tree plucking mangoes and tossing them\ninto a satchel slung under her arm. At the same time she would pick a\nfruit she would grab a leaf or two off the tree and stuff it into her\nmouth. They tasted awful, made her break out in hives, and give her a\nstomachache; but the payoff was worth every excruciating moment,\nbecause by the end of the night she would have a fresh batch of\nvibrant yellow paint. After getting a full satchel of succulent\norange and red fruits she would drop out of the trees and empty the\nsack into a nearby bin, then repeat the process. During lunch Elsie\nsucked on some ginger root and drank copious amounts of water to get\nrid of the taste in her mouth and to stop the mango leaves from\ncoming up. Suddenly two thin black paws wrapped around Elsie's\nneck.\n\n\"Hiya E!\"\nRecently Roxanne had been enjoying practicing sneaking up on Elsie,\nand she had been getting quite good at it.\n\"Shit Rox! You\nscared the hell out of me!\" Elsie said coughing up bits of ginger.\n\n\"Aww, I'm sorry\nhon.\" The vixen gave an exaggerated frown.\n\"It's alright.\"\nThe lop rested her weight on Roxanne's chest, and the vixen gave a\ncontented sigh. \"You're in a good mood.\"\nRoxanne nodded\nenthusiasticly. \"Mm-hm! Watchoo eatin?\"\n\n\"Just some\nginger.\"\n\"Stomach problems\nagain?\" Roxanne raised a knowing eyebrow.\n\"Yeah.\"\n\n\"Well I have\nplenty of meds back at my place if you wanna come over after work.\"\n\n\"If this is\nanother one of your plans to get me into bed again it won't work.\"\n\n\"Are you sure?\nAfter all I've caught you.\" Roxanne said while nibbling on Elsie's\near.\n\n\"Maybe some other\ntime, I have to do some cooking tonight.\"\n\n\"Again?! You said\nthat yesterday.\"\n\n\"What can I say? I\nlike cooking.\" Barely audible beeps coming from Elsie's watch\nlet her know that her lunch break was over. \"Welp.\" said Elsie\n\"That's lunch.\"\n\n\"Well if you\nchange your mind and feel the need to see a foxy face and share a\nwarm bed my house is always available. In the mean time you better\nget running, rabbit.\" Roxanne whispered into Elsie's ear then bit\ndown on it hard.\n\n\"OW! Remind me\nagain, why the fuck do you always do that?\"\n\n\"So you don't\nforget me,\" she said with a smirk and walked away.\n\n On her way to the\nraspberry fields Elsie stopped by the blueberries. They were not ripe\nyet but she didn't want them to be. She rolled the berries in her\nfingers; they were firm, and would make a good light green hue. She\nchecked to make sure no one was around, then in one swift movement\nshe stripped the branch of berries and hid the under ripe berries in\na small hole in her pants. After that Elsie went to the raspberry\nfield and began her work there; she stashed some of the ripe berries\nin her pants at the raspberry field, just as she had done before.\nSeveral hours later, after her work was over, Walter approached Elsie\nonce again. \"Hey Elsie, about that question.\"\n\n\"What's up\nWalt?\"\n\n\"Your mother was\nmarked as an objectionable tradesman wasn't she?\"\n\n\"Yeah, she was,\nbut what does this have to do with me?\"\n\n\"I'll get to\nthat. What did she do before the matriarch took the throne?\"\n\n\"She was an\nartist, liked to paint a lot of surrealistic paintings, and she did\nstreet art quite a lot as well.\"\n\n\"She painted with...\ncolors?\"\n\n\"Look, Walt if\nthere is a point please get to it. I have a lot of cooking to do\ntoday.\"\n\n\"I just wanted\nyour opinion on something, but it can wait till later.\"\n\n\"Alright if you\nsay so boss! How about some coffee with Rox and I some time?\"\n\n\"That would nice\nElsie.\"\n\n\"Call her\ntomorrow, I'll probably be there in the morning and we can make some\nplans.\" Elsie gave him a kiss on the cheek then bolted out the\ndoor.\n\n\n The scent of\nmildew and stale coffee permeated Elsie's apartment. The afternoon\nsun was shining through the slats of her shades, creating beautiful\nshafts of yellow light as the sunshine reflected off the dust in the\nair. She reflected on the transcendence of the moment for a short\ntime and set off to work on her 'cooking'. First she started to boil\nsome water for the berries she had stowed, then she grabbed saucepan\nand went to the bathroom procure arguably the most disgusting part of\nher paint. Her body had been working all day to work out the poisons\nin the mango leaves, and now the excruciating toxins were gone from\nher body and ready to be turned into paint. After boiling the berries\nfor a short time she placed them on racks and slotted them into a\nhome-made dehydrator. At the same time she began to boil the liquid\noff of the deep yellow urine in the saucepan and pour some flaxseed\noil into another pan and put it on the fire. A secret panel in the\nwall hid all of her pestle and mortars that she would use to grind\nall her dried pigments and mix her paints. Hours of careful mixing\nand grinding later and the paints were almost ready. For the final\nstep she popped open a bottle of vodka, gulped down a slug, and added\na small amount of liquid to each of the paints.\n\n Elsie looked at her\nwatch, 21:33. Curfew had been in effect for some time, so the only\nthings on the street were finks and security officers. Elsie pulled\non a black hoodie and leather working gloves, loaded up her backpack\nwith cheap plastic containers full of paint, put on her mask, and\nclimbed out the fire escape. Tonight she had the perfect wall in\nmind. She made her way from street to street careful not to draw\nattention from the finks. She climbed up a billboard ladder, jumped\nto a narrow ledge, and quickly began scaling the huge concrete\nbuilding. There it was! The perfect wall! Elsie set a timer on her\nbottom watch; she pulled out her paints, donned a pair of rubber\ngloves over her leather ones, and started her art. What took days of\npreparation and weeks of planning only took minutes to execute. She\nsavored each stroke, as the home made colors rolled off her\nfingertips and onto the concrete. She moved with lightning speed and\nrazor accuracy, the ethanol in her paint evaporated carrying with it\nthe scents of the pigments. She was getting entirely lost in her work\nas she labored, but the sound of finks grew into a tremendous hum.\nAfter Elsie finished her painting she stepped back to admire her\nwork. It was her masterpiece. The perfect painting, on the perfect\nwall; it was a grand mural featuring a mob of animals tearing down\nhorrifying visage of the matriarch and four simple letters: E-N-V-Y.\nThat was all that anyone had left anymore, envy of those who lived in\na time long past, but not enough ire to make a change. The beeping on\nher watch informed Elsie that her time was just about up. She reached\ninto her bag and grabbed a long rope, and she used it to quickly tie\na highwayman's hitch to a decorative hole at the top of the parapet.\nShe tossed the rope ends over the edge of the building and skillfully\nrappelled down the side; after reaching the bottom she yanked on the\nother end of the rope and it came tumbling down to her. As she\nstuffed the rope back in her bag Elsie spotted a fink coming from a\nnearby alley. \"Better get runnin' rabbit.\" She whispered to her\nself and she darted through the streets desperate to lose the swarm\nof finks and security officers barreling towards her at break-neck\nspeeds. She needed an ally and an alibi, and fast!\n\n\n Roxanne was\nwatching the matriarch Simonne's weekly speech on television. The\naged kodiak bear was personally reporting on the latest horrifying\nsnuff picture from the defector's haven. \"These people aren't\nnormal! They want nothing more than to destroy everything that makes\nyou safe!\" she exclaimed \"Look how they brutally murdered this\nyoung man! They lurk outside the city's gates waiting to catch\nstrays.\" She pounded her fist against her chest and boldly\ncontinued. \"Remember: if you stay in the den then mama bear will\nprotect you!\" Roxanne tuned her out as she went into her usual\nspiel about the importance honesty, hard-work, and above all\nservitude. She promised that all her rules were for the people's\nsafety, and continued to remark as she always did that the people\nshould celebrate the three-thousand-some-odd days since she took\ncomplete power and made the province 'better'. \"What a load of\ncrap\" Roxanne said aloud as she turned off the television. She sat\nback in her seat chewing on some fruit and reading some\nsensationalized piece of tabloid news. She looked up at the clock on\nher wall and worried, her thoughts wandering to the world outside of\nher home and what might be happening that very moment. Suddenly there\nwas a loud knock coming from her front door, and it startled her so\nmuch she let out an audible yelp. Just on the other side of the\npeephole there was a small figure, breathing heavily. The silhouette\nmade Roxanne's heart leap. She opened the door and spoke quietly.\n\"Hiya E.\"\n\n\"Hey Rox... how\nyou doin'?\"\n\n\"Better than you\nby the looks of it.\" Roxanne said gesturing to a deep cut on\nElsie's upper arm. \"Cooking accident.\"\n\n\"I bet... Good to\nsee you, although it's not every day you get to surprise me.\"\n\n\"My ear was\nhurting and I needed to see your foxy face.\"\n\n\"Well you better\ncome in before we get some uninvited guests.\"\n\n\"Thanks, babe.\"\nElsie said while stepping into the house and Roxanne locked the door\nbehind her.\n\"Let me get my med\nkit for all your cuts, but first let's get that sweater off.\"\n\n\"You pervert.\"\nchuckled Elsie.\n\n\"It's to get a\nbetter look at that nasty gash on your arm... getting you topless is\njust an added benefit.\" Elsie hissed and bit her lip as the sweater\nrolled over her arm. \"Aww... my poor honey bunny. How did that\nhappen?\"\n\n\"I was hopping\nover a fence and a fink came out of nowhere buzzing and howling. The\nlittle fucker got in my way and it was all I could do to cover my\nface\"\n\n\"Tampering with,\nor disabling, a monitor is punishable by up to 7 days unpaid labor or\na night in a recalibration suit\" Roxanne said in a mechanical voice\nsimilar to a fink. \"Hold still.\" Roxanne pulled a pair of\ntweezers from her bag and began to pull small shards of plastic from\nElsie's arm. \"Got any pain killers?\"\n\n\"Sure, let me get\nsome.\" Roxanne went to her cupboard and pulled out a bottle of\nwhiskey and a couple rocks glasses, and poured a small portion into\neach glass. \"Here, get this in your gut... and like I said keep\nstill... this is gonna sting.\"\n\n\"Here's to\nlife.\" Elsie said holding up her glass\n\n\"Here's to\nlove.\" Roxanne said. Their glasses made a pleasant 'ding' and Elsie\ngulped down her whiskey, at the same time Roxanne poured the contents\nher glass over the open wound on Elsie's arm. The pain would have\nbeen enough to make anyone else scream, but Elsie just let out a\nslight whimper. \"Well the cuts look worse than they actually are,\nprobably take a little time to heal but you should be fine.\"\nRoxanne used a towel to expunge the blood and spirits from Elsie's\nfur. She took a deep breath as she somberly began to wrap up Elsie's\narm in a bandage. \"Why do you do this, E?\"\n\"What do you\nmean?\"\n\n\"This... thing...\nyou go out in the middle of the night with your home made paints,\nwhich even owning is even more illegal than grinding up a fink in\nyour arm by the way, and you make gorgeous art but to what end? For\nwhat purpose do you do it? Who is it for?\"\n\"It's for the\npeople, Rox. It's a push for a change, make a difference-.\"\n\n\"There was a time\nwhen artists like you could make a difference but not anymore;\nnow your work is just gonna get photographed by some asshole from the\npolice or, if your lucky, someone from the news outlet who can't\neven print the god damn thing. Then the picture is gonna be filed\nunder 'objectionable material' in some government file with the\nword 'envy' scrawled across it. Then the building is going to get\npainted over or burned and rebuilt as a grand show of punishment just\nin case someone even thought about agreeing with you.\"\n\n\"Not this time.\"\n\n\"What do you mean\n'not this time'?\"\n\n\"This time I\nbombed the slam to top all slams: one of the high walls on the newly\nconstructed ministry of royal affairs building in the plaza! It's\nway too big and important to be reconstructed, and the boring gray\npaint order for the building doesn't come in for another week!\"\nElsie gave a proud grin, but Roxanne merely shook her head.\n\"I... I don't\nknow if I should be more impressed or angry right now.\"\n\n\"Angry?\"\n\n\"Yes! Because you\ngo out and you raise hell and make life harder on everyone...\nespecially me.\" \"Look... Rox-.\"\n\n\"I care about you\nE; I care about you a lot, have since we were 12, but one of these\ndays your gonna get caught, or seriously hurt, and I'm afraid that\nI couldn't be there to dress your wounds and take care of you...\nI'm afraid I would lose you... I'm afraid the world would lose\nyou.\" For a moment the only noise that could be heard is the\nhumming of monitors outside frantically scanning the streets. \"I'm\nsorry Rox... I didn't know how much you worried.\" Elsie wiped the\ntears form Roxanne's face and gave her a kiss on the forehead.\n\"Well, you better come upstairs.\" Roxanne said with a sigh \"let's\nget some rest and let your arm mend.\"\n\n\"Thanks for\neverything Rox... tomorrow I'll paint something just for you to\nadmire, at least for a day.\"\n\"That would be\nnice E.\"\n\n\n\n\nChapter\nII: Bolt From the Blue\n\n Mica had been\nwaiting for her next order for days. Her ghillie suit hadn't\ngranted her much warmth, and the cold and isolation were making it\ndifficult for to hold on to the fragments of what was once her mind.\nShe wondered if the matriarch had discovered the Defector's Haven\nand she was all that was left of her comrades, then she began to\nwonder if the Defector's Haven actually existed. \"No\" she\nthought, \"they must be real... I know who my delusions are\".\nSuddenly a slender panther slinked up behind Mica. \"I could kill\nyou right now if I wanted to Mica.\" he said in a sinister voice.\nMica stayed perfectly still and silent. \"What... no snappy\ncomeback?\"\n\n\"You're not\nreal.\" Mica said under her breath.\n\n\"How do you know?\"\n\n\"You told me so,\nDeimos.\"\n\n\"What has Dolos\ntold you?\"\n\n\"It doesn't\nmatter.\"\n\"Do you know when\nyour birthday is?\"\n\"Not now, Deimos.\nPlease just go back in my brain.\"\n\"Do you know\nthat's where I came from?\"\n\"I have my ways of\nknowing.\"\n\n\"ohhh really?\"\nPiss off she thought to her self. \"That's not very nice\"\nhe replied.\n\n\"I didn't say\nanything,\" she whispered.\n\n\"Touché... fine,\nI'll go, but I'll be back.\" and he crept away back to the recess\nof Mica's mind. Mica was alone again. At least when she was\nhallucinating she had company, without the visions here there was\nnothing but the wind and the moon. There was a low grumble coming\nfrom Mica's stomach. Mica carefully reached into a pocket on her\nchest and pulled out a large stick of dried meat bit down on it. Just\nas slowly as she retrieved the jerky from her vest she slid her hand\nback into the trigger housing of her rifle. As the fibers of meat in\nMica's mouth slowly separated a small ocelot girl crawled up next\nto her. \"When did you count your targets last?\" It spoke in the\nsame tone that a concerned friend might use when asking when the last\ntime you slept was. About 10 minutes ago, Voithós.\nMica Thought. \"Maybe you should count them again.\" Nine\nguards in the courtyard, six in the guard towers-. \"Did you\ncount two snipers on the roof?\" Not yet.\n\"Any patrols?\" five, on the perimeter. \"Any\nsign of general Nash?\" no not yet, he's late.\nSuddenly Mica's earpiece chirped to life. \"Mu, this is Alpha do\nyou copy?\" Mica quickly swallowed the jerky and replied.\n\n\"Affirmative.\"\n\n\"Your primary\ntarget has changed, prepare to receive new orders.\"\n\n\"What do you mean\n'changed'? General Nash is no longer my target?\"\n\n\"General Nash is\nnow a secondary target.\"\n\n\"Secondary? Are\nyou screwing with me? This hit has been planned for too long for him\nto be a secondary.\"\n\n\"He will still be\nthere, but a new target has been confirmed and he takes priority.\"\n\n\"This better be\nfucking good.\"\n\n\"Your new primary\ntarget is Oliver Beltz\" Mica hesitated for a moment.\n\n\"The heir?\"\n\n\"Affirmative.\nPrimary target now Prince Oliver Beltz, son of Simonne Beltz. Please\nconfirm orders Mu.\"\n\n\"Confirmed. Oliver\nBeltz is now primary.\"\n\n\"Good... Alpha\nout.\" Mica looked at the time on the distant clock tower; It read\nas 9:52. There was a low level rumble as a large convoy of military\nvehicles rounded a corner and pulled into the courtyard of the\ncomplex in the valley below. One by one various soldiers and security\nguards emerged from the armored vans and jeeps. Finally the general\nemerged from his vehicle closely followed by Oliver. General Nash was\nan integral part of Matriarch Simonne's government, on top of that\nsomething deep down in Mica just wanted Nash dead; Oliver on the\nother hand was just a 22-year-old kid who had the misfortune of being\nthe son of a dictator. Voithós offered more advice. \"Deep breath,\n'kay? Make the shot count.\" Mica carefully leveled her rifle and\nslowly exhaled. \"You got this, just a smooth movement.\" Her grip\ntightened and the trigger began to slide back towards her palm when\nsuddenly the complex lit up and huge bay doors on the side of the\nmassive building opened up. A great swarm of monitors came pouring\nout of the gaping holes, obscuring Mica's shot just as it was let\nloose. The tremendous crack from her rifle did not go unnoticed; the\nsnipers on the roof had begun to scan the area for the offending\nshot. Mica carefully pulled the bolt of her rifle back and another\nmassive bullet was loaded into the chamber. Mica spotted glint of the\nmoon off of one of the sniper's scopes, \"Take care of the two\nsnipers, they are the only ones who could spot right now.\" She\nsqueezed the trigger and one of the snipers fell out of sight. With a\nquick movement Mica readied another shot and sent 41 grams of\ntungsten at over 900 meters per second through the fleshy gut of the\nsecond sniper. When the swarm cleared the courtyard was in a panic.\nOliver was no longer in sight, but neither was the general, and there\nwas a small stream of blood pooling under the convoy. \"Patrol\nsweeping in your direction.\" Mica didn't know if the shot\nconnected with the right target, and she didn't have time to stick\naround and confirm it. \"Run.\" She slid off the back side of the\nridge and darted off into the forest. As Mica ran through the woods\nher thoughts raced along with her. Did I kill them? Did I miss?\nWas I just shooting at another phantom? How much of this is real and\nhow much is imagined? she needed to calm down and collect her\nthoughts. She came by an old rundown shack and decided that was as\ngood a place as any to get some rest.\n\n\n Elsie pulled the\nwarm covers over her shoulders and smiled as crisp morning air kissed\nher cheeks. One of her favorite things was laying in a warm bed on a\ncold morning, but when she rolled over she saw an empty bed beside\nher. Elsie fondly ran her hand across the sheets. The sweet scent of\nRoxanne's sweat hung in the air, and the warmth of her body still\nradiated from the now vacant bed. As Elsie put on a bathrobe she\nheard voices coming from downstairs. She slowly descended the\nstaircase, as not to attract attention. In living room Roxanne was\nspeaking with a security officer that was accompanied by a fink. \"Is\nthere anyone else in the building Ms. Metz?\"\n\n\"In my home you\ncan just call me Roxanne.\" Roxanne said sweetly.\n\n\"Just answer the\nquestion.\"\n\n\"Yes, I have\ncompany. So if you don't mind-.\"\n\n\"Who is your\nguest?\"\n\n\"I am!\" Blurted\nout Elsie\n\n\"And who are you?\"\n\n\"Her name is\nElsie-.\"\n\n\"I wasn't\naddressing you, Ms. Metz!\" growled the guard.\n\n\"My name is Elsie\nVedas, and that is no way to speak to a private citizen.\" Elsie\nsaid as she stomped up to the masked guard.\n\n\"Where were you\nlast night at 9:35 pm?\"\n\n\"First tell me\nwhat this is about.\" Elsie said curtly.\n\n\"This is about an\nincident that happened last night that involved several radical\nterrorists! Now answer my questions or I will be forced to bring you\nin for a full interrogation! Now, Ms. Vedas, where were you last\nnight at 9:35 pm?\"\n\n\"What did these\nterrorists do, exactly?\"\n\n\"That is\nclassified information, now answer my question! Where were you last\nnight?\"\n\n\"I was here,\nenjoying my evening with Roxanne.\"\n\n\"When did you\narrive here?\"\n\n\"I don't\nremember, not too late though.\"\n\n\"What do you mean\n'too late'?\"\n\n\"I mean I got off\nwork, went home, took a piss, did some cooking, then came here to see\nmy goddamn girlfriend! Is that enough details, or should I describe\nMs. Metz's nipples?\" The guard turned towards Roxanne.\n\n\"Would you object\nto a search of your house Ms. Metz?\"\n\n\"She most\ncertainly would.\" Elsie said quickly.\n\"This is not your\nhouse, Ms. Vedas, and-.\"\n\n\"And nothing! This\nis more my house than it is yours! I was enjoying a nice morning and\nyou come knocking on this door, trespassing on both Roxanne and my\nprivate life and our personal time, and you think you are in the\nright?! I think you should hurry the hell up and either arrest us for\nsomething that we didn't do and waste the governments time and\nresources or fuck off before I call your superior and get you into\nreal trouble.\" The security guard stood still there as Elsie's\nwords echoed in his ear. He carefully reached into his pocket and\nremoved a slender black remote, and pressed a few buttons on it.\n\"Stay out of trouble.\" He spoke through his teeth, and walked out\nthe door. \"Thanks for sticking up for me, E.\" Roxanne said\nquietly as she curled up on her couch. Elsie peered out the window\nuntil the guard was gone, then she drew the shades and sat down.\nRoxanne fell over onto Elsie's lap began to weep. Elsie scratched\nRoxanne's orange ears. \"That guy was just an asshole.\"\n\n\"And I was a\npussy.\"\n\n\"You're just too\nsweet to deal with those thugs, and that is nothing to be ashamed\nof.\"\n\n\"I'm a coward.\"\n\n\"You most\ncertainly are not! The way you chased after me for all those years?!\nEvery day you would come to me after school and ask me to go out with\nyou. Do you remember what I would say?\"\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\n\"What was it?\"\n\n\"You used to say\n'if you can catch me you can keep me' before dashing off.\"\n\n\"And every day you\nwould run after me, little did I know you had figured out where I\nwent each day.\" \"You always would go to the little gap between\nthe water treatment building and the gas station via the most\nroundabout route possible.\"\n\n\"Yep... and one\nday you came to me and asked me out and I ran, like every day, but\nwhen I got to the alley you were already there! You had followed the\nstream; running through the culverts, and sliding down the spillway\njust to get the drop on me.\" Roxanne began to chuckle a little bit.\nElsie continued her story \"That was either the stupidest or the\nmost brilliant thing I had ever heard of! It was certainly the\nbravest thing I have ever seen someone do. I was so stunned I\ncouldn't even think. You slowly walked up to me, wrapped your\nsoaking wet arms around me and said 'now I get to keep you'.\"\n\n\"And I did.\"\n\n\"You sure did.\nNow, this is the second time in less than 12 hours that you have come\nto tears, and I simply won't stand for that!\"\n\n\"I'm sorry... I\njust cry easily.\" Roxanne wiped her eyes off and sat back up.\n\n\"I know, but you\nalso pick your self up, sometimes with a little help from me, and you\nget on with your life. I, for one, am glad that I am a part of your\nlife.\"\n\n\"I'm glad of\nthat too.\"\n\n\"Now, here's\nwhat is going to happen today: you and I are gonna go take a shower\ntogether, you make some breakfast while I make a beautiful portrait\nof the woman I love, we're gonna call Walt, have a cup of coffee\nwith him, come back here, and have a nice quiet evening together.\"\n\n\"That sounds\nnice.\"\n\n\"Today is my day\nto be nice instead of just sound nice, Rox.\"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nChapter\nIII: Green Around the Gills\n\n Mica carefully\npressed her ear against the shack's door. Then she walked around\nthe building and peered in the grimy window. The shack had been\nvacant for quite some time by the looks of it. She went back to the\ndoor and tested the knob. It was stiff and would not give. She pushed\nback from the door and slammed her shoulder into it, to no avail. She\ntried hitting the door with her shoulder again. Not even a budge. She\ntook a step back, lifter her foot, and put all of her strength into a\nferocious kick. The rusty hinges of the door gave way and it slammed\ninto the ground. Inside there was a mirror hung on the wall over a\nsmall sink, across the room there was an old moth-eaten cot, and a\nshallow fire pit with a long iron spit over it. Mica's earpiece\npowered up again. \"Mu, Do you co-zzkxxz? Repea-zchss-o you copy?\nThis is Alpha! Do yo-chzczkk-py.\"\n\n\"This is Mu. I\nread you, but your signal is garbled.\"\n\n\"We're\nget-qrzzzkz-of chatter from hierarchy, I need a SitRep!\"\n\n\"The whole thing\nhas gone to shit. I'm hunkered down in some shitty little house and\nI need an extraction.\"\n\n\"That's a no-go\non the extraction Mu. We need you to stay pu-zvshhrr-om-xvttt-Tou.\"\n\n\"Say again? I did\nnot copy your last.\"\n \"We nee-szsh-to\nstay put until we-zkshhhh-.\"\n\n\"Alpha? Do you\ncopy? ALPHA? Shit!\" Mica figured she would follow the only part of\nthe message she got. Without extraction she would have to stay put\nanyway. She went outside to gather some firewood. The shack sat on\nthe side of the mountain that was surrounded pine trees. These trees\nwere still too green and full of life to make a good fire. A bit\nfurther up the mountain there was a downed tree that had been struck\nby lightning. The lightning had carved a deep spiral burn in the tree\nalong its sap line, making it easy to break apart into manageable\npieces. As Mica trudged back to the shack large white flakes of snow\nbegan to drift through the air. Mica stopped for a moment and held\nout her tongue to catch a few snowflakes. She wasn't sure why, but\nthe snow always made her feel more cozy than cold; she thought that\nmaybe that it was a long lost memory, buried in her mind in a\nlocked-off section of her brain. Every time she tried to think back\ntoo hard she would begin to feel nauseous, her extremities would numb\nup and sometimes her she would be in so much pain she would pass out.\nWhen she got back to the shack she placed the door back in its frame\nand got to work starting a fire. When Mica reached for her Zippo it\nwasn't there. Shit! She thought to her self. Where is it?\nI have never left home without it! Or did I imagine it? as she\nrummaged through her pockets she became frantic. She could see the\nlighter in her head, its dark blue inlaid sides, the rounded corners,\nthe rose gold edges, the bright red dragon with the writing\nunderneath. As she thought about it she began to feel a bit ill. No...\nIt must not be real... or it must not be somewhere I can't think\nto. When she calmed down Mica remembered the box of matches that\nwere stowed next to her jerky. They were all too wet to light, so she\nwent to plan B. She popped the 9v battery out of her Geiger counter\nand grabbed some steel wool from her rifle cleaning kit and carefully\nstruck a fire with them. The inferno grew into a decent size in no\ntime. Mica went to the window close the shades so the fire would not\nbe spotted. The snow was coming down hard now and showed no signs of\nstopping. Mica went to the sink, made sure it was plugged, and\nemptied her canteen in it. She took off her ghillie suit and began to\ngently rinse her face in the sink. The young wolf staring back at her\nin the mirror seemed foreign to Mica. She pulled back tufts of brown\nfur to reveal long scars that were only exaggerated by the flickering\nfire, as she ran her fingers across them their smooth surface they\nalmost felt like they were an inch away from where they appeared on\nher body. Mica turned towards the fire and was startled to see Deimos\nstanding there. She deftly drew her combat knife at took a swing at\nhim. \"Woah there, little wolf. You don't want to hurt your self.\"\nHe said as he hopped back dodging the blade.\n\n\"Go away Deimos!\"\nMica screamed.\n\n\"I don't much\nfeel like it.\"\n\n\"Oh for the love\nof-... Yes you do Deimos.\" Said a deep voiced tiger hunched over\nthe fire.\n\n\"You think I just\nenjoy torturing her Dolos?\"\n\n\"She's torturing\nher, Deiomos. We are her.\"\n\n\"Bullshit, why\nwould she make us just to torture her?\" Mica sat down and tried her\nbest to ignore the broken bits of her brain arguing in front of her,\nbut it didn't work. \"Why would anyone willingly create\nsomeone else who is constantly torturing them? She isn't a\nmasochist.\"\n\n\"Brains are\nstrange places. She's always been this way.\"\n\n\"You don't know\nthat! If she doesn't you don't.\"\n\"She is starting\nto remember.\"\n\n\"Not fast enough!\"\nMica was starting to lose her self-restraint. \"Shut up.\" she\nwhispered.\n\n\"I want her to\nremember as much as you do, Deimos. But-.\"\n\n\"Do you really?\"\n\n\"Shut up.\" Mica\nsaid a little louder.\n\n\"Yes I really do!\nBut this is not the way to do it!\"\n\n\"Just let me do my\njob! Let me give her a push in the right direction! Stop undermining\nmy efforts!\" \"Shut up! Both of you shut the fuck up! Just go\naway! I don't need you! I don't need any of you! Shut up! Shut\nup! Shut up!\" Mica was howling and wildly swinging her knife\naround. Deimos socked Dolos in the stomach; Dolos doubled over,\ndissolving back into Mica's psyche. \"You too Deimos! Leave me\nalone!\" Mica threw her knife at him, and it passed through his body\nand hit the wall behind him with a thunk. Deimos seized Mica's arms\nas she fell to her knees. \"Remember! What did the zippo look like?\nIt had an engraving on it! What did it say?\"\n\n\"I'm not playing\nthis game with you Deimos!\"\n\n\"Just tell me what\nwas engraved on the lighter and I'll leave you alone.\"\n\n\"It had my name!\"\n\n\"Yes but what was\nthe name?\"\n\n\"It-it said Mica.\"\nMica's stomach began to churn and there was a sharp stabbing pain\nin her head and chest.\n\n\"No! That was the\nname that Andrew in the Defector's Haven gave you! What did your\nlighter say?\" \"I-... i-it... I don't-.\" She began to black\nout.\n\n\"No! Stay with me!\nDon't black out right now! The lighter you had for years! You\nmanaged to tap into the memory accidentally, now finish the job!\"\n\n\"It was bl-blue...\na-and rose gold... and it-.\" Images of the lighter were flashing in\nher throbbing head.\n\n\"It was custom\nmade! In big bright yellow letters it had a name! Your name! What was\nit! Remember! Say your name, woman! Say it!\"\n\n\"M-my name i-...\nmy name is\" She could no longer hold on. Deimos faded from reality\nas Mica succumbed to the pain and passed out on the floor.\n\n\n Roxanne was\ncracking eggs into a bowl as Elsie was setting up a makeshift easel\non the table. Elsie set a large piece of cardboard on her kludged\ntogether easel; it was an inelegant but effective canvas for her to\nwork on. Then Elsie went to the cupboard under the sink and began to\nrummage around in it. \"What are you doing?\" asked Roxanne\n\n\"Lookin.'\"\n\n\"Looking for what\nexactly?\"\n\n\"I'll know when\nI see it.\"\n\n\"And how do you\nknow what you're looking for is down there?\"\n\n\"Because I know\nyou.\" Elsie said as her slender fingers tapped on the lids of the\nvarious cans and bottles in the cupboard. \"Aha!\" Elsie said as\nshe emerged holding a light green can. The can's label said 'Super\nClean' in big block letters and in a cursive subscript it said 'the\nsuper green product that get your $#@! SUPER CLEAN!' and the mascot\nwas a bright green amorphous blob wearing sunglasses and a beanie; it\nwas giving a wide semi-toothless grin and a thumbs up while bits of\nits arm and hand dripped off. Elsie pressed her palm against the\nbottom of the can and twisted. The silver disk that formed the base\nof the can came off to reveal a small plastic bag hidden in the can.\n\"You should probably get a better stash can.\" Elsie said.\n\n\"What's wrong\nwith that one?\"\n\n\"Well for one\nthing this product hasn't existed for almost a decade.\" Elsie\nplucked the bag from the can, opened it up, buried her face in it and\ninhaled deeply.\n\n The pungent aroma\nwafting from the buds in the bag brought a smile to Elsie's face.\nThe lop pulled some wrapping papers from the bag and began to roll a\nslender cigarette packed with the intoxicating herbs. \"Hey!\"\nRoxanne shouted. Elsie looked up bewildered with the joint hanging\nout of her mouth. \"What? What's wrong?\"\n\n\"Can we not do two\nillegal things at once?\"\n\n\"But I don't\nwant to paint too fast! I wanna feel my way around this... canvas,\nand I need my muse.\" Elsie, standing on her toes, wrapped her hands\naround Roxanne's body and lit the joint on the stove.\n\n\"Your muse?\"\n\n\"My muse is you,\nsilly!\" Elsie took a long drag from the cigarette while resting her\nchin on Roxanne's shoulder. Then she slipped the joint into\nRoxanne's mouth, and gave her a peck on the cheek. Elsie untied\nRoxanne's apron, the apron slid onto the ground and Elsie ran her\npaws down Roxanne nude body. Elsie closed her eyes and let Roxanne's\nsmooth fur slide through her fingers, at the same time she buried her\nnose into Roxanne's shoulder and nuzzled her neck. \"Getting high,\nfelt up, and cooking all at the same time is difficult, E.\"\n\n\"I'm sorry about\nthat, Foxy Roxy.\" Elsie said, and she began to scratch Roxanne's\npubic mound and squeezed her breast. Roxanne shuddered slightly and\ngiggled while Elsie nibbled on her pointy ears.\n\n\"That's not\nhelping, E, and at this rate you will never get breakfast.\"\n\n\"I guess you can\njust focus on the one thing then. Besides I just needed to get a feel\nof your wonderful curves.\" Elsie said as she retrieved the\nsmoldering pot from Roxanne's dark lips. \"Make 'em good!\"\nElsie said and she gave Roxanne a sharp slap on her ass, went back to\nthe table, and began to paint. Roxanne thought about picking the\napron up off of the floor, but when she bent down to pick it up Elsie\ncleared her throat loudly, so she carried on cooking without it. For\na while the only sounds in the house was the crackling of veggies in\noil and Elsie's humming some old tune that her mother used to sing.\nAfter several minutes Roxanne placed two well-made omelets that were\nheavy with the intoxicating scent of onions and peppers on the\nweathered table. Elsie was so engrossed with her painting that she\ndidn't notice Roxanne sit down and was so taken aback to see her\nwhen she looked up that she nearly fell over. \"Dig in!\" Roxanne\nexclaimed after Elsie recovered. Elsie attempted to continue painting\nwith her right hand and eating with her left, but the pain in her\nleft arm made her cringe. \"Just eat right now. I'll change your\nbandage.\"\n \"But... my\npainting.\" Elsie said in a tiny voice with strands of cheese\nhanging out of her mouth.\n\n\"Fine\" Sighed\nRoxanne \"try not to move around so much, E.\"\n \"Thanks, Rox.\"\nElsie said with a grin, and Roxanne cut up the omelet into bite-size\npieces then went on changing the bandage wrapped around Elsie's\narm. The pair of them got lost in the next few hours, they were\ncompletely engrossed with each other as they ate, talked, and\nrelaxed.\n\n Mica woke up with\na start. The cold ground was unforgiving and bits of gravel were\nstuck in Mica's fur. She quickly brushed off her face and began\nsuiting up again. The fire had long since burned out and the snow\ncontinued to fall. Mica's earpiece buzzed for a few seconds before\na voice came from the other end. \"Mica? Are you there?\" said a\nnasal voice on the other end.\n\n\"Tau... how many\ntimes do I have to tell you? No names on the radio.\"\n\n\"Oh! Right! Sorry\nmic- er... Mu.\"\n\n\"What's the\nsituation Tau?\"\n\n\"Hang on. Let me\nget out my code book out\" Mica listened to the sound of Velcro\nripping apart and papers being shuffled for a few moments before she\nstarted to lose her patience.\n\n\"Tau...\"\n\n\"Here it is! Now I\njust gotta-.\" He began to mumble.\n\n\"Tau...\"\n\n\"Aha! Here it is!\nWe have a Code Mike-Victor-One-Niner\" Mica thought about it for a\nmoment.\n\n\"How did you lose\na motorcycle, Tau?\"\n\n\"Shit! Wrong code,\nsorry! I'm having trouble finding the right code when the book is\ncovered in all this-.\" He began to mumble again.\n\n\"All this this\nwhat, Tau?\"\n\n\"I think I got it\nnow! Oh no wait that's the code for out of gas.\"\n\n\"What is the book\ncovered in, Tau?\"\n\n\"Maybe I should\ncheck the-.\"\n\n\"Tau!\" Mica said\nsharply.\n\n\"What?\"\n\n\"What is the book\ncovered in?'\n\n\"Oh... it's\ncovered in blood\"\n\n\"Holy shit, Tau!\"\n\n\"Not my blood...\nat least not most of it\"\n\n\"I don't care\nwhose blood it is-.\"\n\n\"It's Phil's\nblood-.\"\n\n\"Just tell me what\nis going on, Tau. Why is your code book covered in your co-pilot's\nblood?\"\n\n\"I'm trying to\nfind the code-.\"\n\n\"Forget the\nfucking code book, Tau! Just talk to me!\"\n\n\"My chopper went\ndown on my way to rally point Charlie 7 to pick you up.\"\n\n\"Wha- How?\"\n\n\"Hydraulic failure\nplus tall trees and high winds adds up to one busted chopper and a\ndead Phil.\"\n\n\"Are you ok?\"\n\n\"I'm a little\nbanged up but I'll survive... I hope.\"\n\n\"You hope?\"\n\n\"Yeahh... My leg\nis... well... it's not very recognizable as a leg anymore.\"\n\n\"Why are you -.\"\n\n\"More like a used\ntube of toothpaste.\"\n\n\"Why are you so\nblasé about this whole situation?\"\n\n\"Morphine is kinda\ncrazy... and I think I'm still in shock about this whole thing.\"\n\n\"Shit Tau! Are you\nstaying out of the snow?\"\n\n\"Yeah, the back of\nthe chopper was relatively un-fucked-up and I'm camping out here.\"\n\n\"I don't suppose\nyou have your location on you.\"\n\n\"What if we're\nbeing tapped?\"\n\n\"Tau! Just tell me\nwhere you're at!\"\n\n\"I'm about half\na click northeast of rally point Charlie 7.\"\n\n\"Can you see any\nlandmarks nearby?\"\n\n\"I'm about 200\nmeters south of some big ugly statue of an angel.\"\n\n\"Alright Tau, get\nyour sidearm, sit tight, and try to stay warm. I'm on my way.\"\n\n\"Mica?\"\n\n\"Tau for the\nlast-.\"\n\n\"I'm scared\nMica\" he said with a sob \"I don't want to die.\"\n\n\"You're gonna be\nok Tau, I'll be there before you know it, and we'll get the fuck\nback home before you can recite the matriarch's edicts.\"\n\n\"Please hurry.\"\n\n\"Roger that. I'm\nOscar Mike. Oh! And Russ?\"\n\n\"Yeah Mica?\"\n\n\"No dying... Mu\nout.\"\n\n\"I'll keep that\nin mind... Tau out\" After consulting her chart for a moment Mica\nstowed it in her chest pocket and slung her rifle over her shoulder.\nMica pulled the broken door backwards into the shack to reveal shin\ndeep snow. She gave a light sigh and stepped outside. As she crossed\nthe threshold a small voice chimed in. \"Deimos is right you know?\nYou need to remember.\"\n\n\"Do you really\nthink so Voithós?\" Mica said looking over at the small ocelot\nstanding next to the door.\n\n\"Yes, but I also\nthink Deimos just enjoys seeing you get hurt.\"\n\n\"Oh, and what do\nyou think of Dolos?\"\n\"He just likes\nlying.\"\n\"As much as I\nwould like to discuss my insanity with one of my delusions I need to\nrescue my friend.\"\n\n\"Next time I\nprobably won't be alone.\"\n\n\"I'll take my\nchances, Voithós, but for now It'll have to wait.\" Mica brushed\nher nails through Voithós's hair.\n\n\"I'm so sorry\nabout all of us.\" Voithós whispered.\n\n\"If it's any\nconciliation you're my favorite crack in my psyche, you seem to be\nthe only one who actually cares for me.\" Mica gave Voithós a kiss\non her forehead and Voithós gave a slight smirk as she vanished.\nMica took a moment to get her bearings and set off in the direction\nof the helicopter crash.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nChapter\nIV: Rose-Tinted Glasses\n\n\"Hurry up, E!\nWalter is waiting for us!\" Roxanne shouted up the stairs.\n\n\"I'll be down in\na minute!\"\n\n\"That's what you\nsaid 5 minutes ago!\"\n\n\"I'm almost\ndone!\" Roxanne paced around her living room for a bit before trying\nto goad Elsie again.\n\n\"Elsie! Can we\nplease get going?\"\n\n\"For fuck's sake\nRox! Cool your tits! Just... just go outside and make a snowman or\nsomething\"\n\n Roxanne looked\naround the room, then pulled out a flashlight and peered into the\nfireplace. Carefully holding the flashlight in her teeth Roxanne\ngripped the grate and pulled back on it. The grate slid out of the\nfireplace with some amount of ease. Roxanne pushed her hand through\nthe soot and felt around until she found a small hole, no bigger than\nan ant. She slapped her hands on her thighs several times making\nlight gray streaks on the black denim. Roxanne took the small silver\nearring out of her left ear and carefully twisted it revealing a\nhidden compartment with a tiny key. Pinching the key between her\nthumb and forefinger she bent over and placed the key in the small\nhole in the fireplace. With a twist of the key a panel about 18\ninches by 24 inches popped out of the soot covered floor. Roxanne\npressed her thumb against the front edge of the panel and pulled up\non its hinges revealing a deep fiberglass box filled with various\ncanvases and pieces of cardboard each lovingly wrapped in wax paper.\nRoxanne pulled a piece of cardboard from the bunch and removed it\nfrom its wax paper refuge. The painting was of a lone figure in the\nrain. The sun shone with intense radiance under the figure's\numbrella, where the rain could not venture. Roxanne lightly ran her\nfingers over the painting, feeling the art and how the paints was\nbuilt up on the cardboard. Bringing the painting close to her face\nRoxanne inhaled deeply. She could smell the burned cork and\nblueberries in rain, and the ammonia and raspberries in the sun. The\nbitter-sweet scent of the paints reflected the truth of the\npaintings. Elsie's heart was in the lines of every piece she did,\nand her soul in its pigment. Every bit of Elsie went into making\nthese hallowed works and the fact that they had to be hidden was so\nvery heartbreaking to Roxanne. After scanning the painting once more\nRoxanne gently wrapped it in its wax paper and placed it back in the\nbox.\n\n Running her fingers\nover the sides of the art Roxanne selected a canvas and quietly\nunsheathed it. Inside was a painting of an almost empty opera house,\non the stage was a pair of jugglers in jester outfits. A rat with a\ntears running down its cheeks and a deep gaping frown was the juggler\non the right and on the left was a pig giving a boisterous guffaw.\nInstead of balls or pins the jugglers were juggling other animals, as\nthey left the hand of the pig they would be joyous and full of glee\nand as the entered the hands of the rat they began to weep. In the\nlower right-hand corner of the painting was a big golden 'E', the\nsame color as Elsie's fur, with ears coming off of it. Roxanne\nturned the painting over and removed a zip-top bag from the back of\nthe frame, inside was a blue ribbon and a picture of Elsie, Roxanne,\nand Elsie's mother with the painting. Their youth was full of\ninnocence and optimism, and it showed in Elsie's wide braces\ncovered grin. This was one of the only pictures of Elsie or Roxanne\nfrom before the matriarch's election, and eventual coup d'état.\nLooking at the picture memories began to rush back to Roxanne. She\nremembered the first day in town after moving. Elsie was the only\nperson who showed any interest in knowing Roxanne.\n\n\n \"Come help my mom\nand I get some red!\" Elsie said to Roxanne as their last class was\nending. Roxanne was confused; After being home-schooled for so long\nshe wasn't quite used to having conversations with people.\n\n\"I-... Red?\"\n\n\"We need some more\nred and yellow and we could really use the help.\"\n\n\"I'm still-... I\ndon't-... but-.\" Roxanne stammered.\n\n\"Look, I'll\nexplain when we get there.\" Elsie seized Roxanne's wrist and\ndragged her along the dusty road. \"So!\" Elsie exclaimed.\n\n\"So?\"\n\n\"Why'd your\nparents move to Lucid Brook?\"\n\n\"It's kind of a\nlong story.\"\n\n\"Go ahead and tell\nme.\"\n\n\"I...I don't\nknow if I want to go into the whole thing.\"\n\n\"Then just give me\nthe short version.\"\n\n\"Short version?\nOK... well my dad is the new pastor at the-.\" Elsie suddenly\nstopped and turned to Roxanne.\n\n\"Are you guys\nthose people that think everything fun is evil?\"\n\n\"Well... my\nparents don't approve of-.\" An intrusive beeping coming from the\nwatch on Elsie's wrist completely derailed Roxanne's train of\nthought. \"uh... my parents... they think... uhh...\" Elsie hit a\ncouple buttons on her watch and the beeping stopped.\n\n\"Sorry about that.\nWhat do your parents think?\"\n\n\"I'm...\nconfused...\" The young fox nervously scratched behind her ear.\n\"You were telling\nme what your parents think about... something.\"\n\n\"I know... my\nparents think I'm confused.\"\n\n\"What about?\"\nElsie raised her eyebrows into a concerned curve.\n\"Girls mostly.\"\n\n\"But... you are a\ngirl. Why would you be confused? Did they not have sex-ed where you\ncame from?\"\n\n\"That's not what\nmy parents-.\"\n\n\"Did you try using\na mirror?\"\n\n\"No, I-.\"\n\n\"Although that\nmight be kind of awkward. Maybe a camera?\"\n\n\"It's just-.\"\nRoxanne was getting frustrated with the constant interruptions, but\nElsie continued to interrupt over and over again.\n\"No, a cameras no\ngood, you have the same problems with positioning.\"\n\n\"That's not\nwhat-.\"\n\n\"I got it!\"\nElsie shouted, and smacked Roxanne on her shoulder. \"Sometime you\ncould come over to my house and study me! Y'know, get a close\nlook!\"\n\n\"I like girls!\"\nRoxanne blurted out, then immediately clapped her hands over her\nmouth. It seemed like an hour until someone spoke again, but in\nreality it was only about 10 seconds. It was Elsie who decided to\nbreak the silence. \"You should have kept your mouth shut.\"\n\n\"So... you're\nlike my parents?\" Roxanne's shoulders slumped and she began to\nwell up.\n\n\"What do you\nmean?\"\n\n\"You think...I'm...I'm\nan abomination?\" Tears rolling down Roxanne's cheeks started to\nstain her shirt.\n\n\"I don't know\nthat word. Why are you crying?\"\n\n\"You think I'm a\nmonster!\" Roxanne covered her eyes, fell back onto her ass, and\ncontinued to bawl.\n\n\"What?! No I\ndon't!\"\n\n\"Yes you do! You\nhate me!\"\n\n\"Why would you say\nthat?\"\n\n\"You told me to\nkeep my mouth shut! Now you know what I am and you hate me!\"\n\n\"No! I didn't\nmean to hurt you. What I meant was that if you kept your mouth shut\nyou would have gotten to see me naked.\"\n\n\"So you don't\ncare if I like girls?\" Roxanne sniffled and looked up from her\nhands.\n\n\"Hey, whatever\nsinks your sub. I personally like both boys and girls; as long as\nyou're cute I don't care.\" Elsie grabbed a hanky from her back\npocket, squatted down, and started to wipe the tears from Roxanne's\nface. \"And I must say,\" Elsie continued \"you are one cute\ngirl.\"\n\n\"You really think\nso?\"\n\n\"I sure do! It\nsounds to me that you aren't confused, it's your parents who\nare.\" Elsie helped Roxanne to her feet.\n\n\"So you might go\nwith a girl like me?\"\n\n\"Maybe you should\ntry asking me out.\"\n\n\"Would... you go\nout... with me?\"\n\n\"Although you're\nthe first girl to ask me out I'll tell you what I tell everyone\nelse.\"\n\n\"What's that?\"\n\n\"Are you ready to\nhear it?\"\n\n\"Yes I am.\"\n\n\"If you can catch\nme, you can keep me!\" Elsie turned tail and bolted away. Roxanne\nquickly realized what had happened and pursued Elsie down the road.\nSuddenly Elsie took a sharp turn off the road and into the forest,\nand although Roxanne was gaining ground on Elsie she was quickly\nbecoming winded. In the forest Roxanne stopped for a moment to catch\nher breath, when she looked around Elsie was nowhere in sight. It\nsuddenly dawned on Roxanne that she had no idea where she was, and\nshe began to call out for help. \"Rabbit! Where are you?! I give\nup!\"\n\n\"That's not my\nname.\" Elsie said as she climbed down a tree near Roxanne.\n\n\"I'm sorry... I\ncan't remember names very well.\"\n\n\"I remember you\nname... My name is Elsie.\"\n\n\"Sorry... Will you\ngo out with me?\"\n\n\"Not today, you\ncouldn't catch me.\"\n\n\"So I only get one\nchance per day?\"\n\n\"Most guys give up\nafter two or three days.\"\n\n\"They just don't\nwant it enough.\"\n\n\"Anyhow, Roxanne...\"\nElsie's watch started beeping again. After hitting a few buttons it\nfell silent again. \"hmm... can I call you Rox?\"\n\n\"Only if I can\ncall you 'E'.\" Roxanne said in jest.\n\n\"It's a deal.\nAnyhow, Rox, we're almost there.\"\n\n\"Almost where?\"\n\n\"Almost to the\nriver to collect some red.\" Elsie took off her Satchel and began to\nroot around in it.\n\n\"I still don't\nunderstand what you mean by 'collect some red.' Red what?\"\n\n\"Yellow boy...\"\nFrom underneath a mountain of wrinkled papers in her satchel the\nsmall rabbit produced a pair of bright blue rubber gloves still in\ntheir package. \"Here put these on, you'll need them.\"\n\n\"Wait... I thought\nyou said red, now it's yellow?\" Roxanne said skeptically\neyeballing the gloves. \"Yeah... we need to get some yellow boy to\nmake some red. Now put these on.\" Elsie waved the gloves at\nRoxanne.\n\n\"I'm still not\nsure what you mean, but I guess I'll play along.\" Roxanne plucked\nthe gloves from Elsie's hand, ripped open the package with her\nteeth, and pulled them on. Elsie reached into her satchel and pulled\nout a pair of red rubber gloves and put them on. \"Okay,\" Elsie\nsaid, \"Let's go.\" Then she buckled up here bag, slung it over\nher shoulder, grabbed Roxanne's hand and led her through the\nforest. Roxanne looked down at their entangled hands. Elsie's\ngloves were old and well used; the color had begun to fade from them\ngoing from an almost white pink in the finger tips to a deep crimson\non the other end. Roxanne's gloves were also old, and had deep\ncreases from sitting in the bottom of Elsie's satchel. \"uh... hey\nElsie?\"\n\n\"I thought you\nwanted to call me 'E'.\"\n\n\"I was just\nkidding about that.\"\n\n\"Well... just try\nit out, Rox.\"\n\n\"okay... hey E?\"\n\n\"What's up?\"\n\n\"How many people\nhave asked you out?\" Elsie blushed for a moment.\n\n\"Including you?\"\n\n\"Yes.\"\n \"A total of...\nOne.\"\n\n\"So when you said\nthat most people give up after three days?\"\n\n\"I was just trying\nto sound cool...\" Elsie looked down at the ground as they walked.\n\"I don't think many people at school like me, so I just spend a lot\nof time alone.\"\n\"Well if it's\nany consolation I still like you.\" Roxanne reached out with her\nother hand, and then used both her hands to squeeze Elsie's.\n\n\"Thanks, Rox...\nThat means a lot,\" Elsie Squeezed Roxanne's hand in return, \"Even\nif you are the new kid.\"\n\n\"Wow!\" A deep\nbooming voice came from above them. \"I think you guys might give me\ndiabetes, you're that sweet.\" They both looked up and saw a plump\nsquirrel man sitting on a tree branch above them.\n\n\"Dad!\" Elsie\nshouted, \"What have I told you about spying on me?!\"\n\n\"I'm not spying\non you-.\"\n\n\"Then what are you\ndoing?\"\n\n\"Your mother sent\nme to find you; she was wondering what was keeping you... Who's\nyour little girlfriend?\"\n\n\"Roxanne is not my\ngirlfriend dad!\"\n\n\"Hello Roxanne.\nI'm Elsie's dad, David.\" He said as he leapt down from his tree\nbranch. \"It's a pleasure to meet you.\" David extended his arm\nto shake Roxanne's hand. Roxanne began feel her anxiety rise, and\nattempted to hide behind Elsie, this was made difficult because Elsie\nwas almost a full foot shorter than Roxanne. David slowly peered over\nElsie \"Don't be shy.\" he said in a comforting tone. Roxanne\nslowly slid out from behind Elsie and extended her hand. As David and\nRoxanne's hands came together Elsie's watch began to beep again.\n\"Is that the first or second?\" David asked glancing at Elsie.\n\n\"Third.\" Elsie\nsaid fumbling with her watch again.\n\n\"Ah shit! Paige is\ngonna be pissed!\" David exclaimed as he grabbed on to Roxanne and\nElsie and began to run through the forest.\n\n\"That's a dollar\nin the swear jar, dad!\" After a short time they came to a river and\nfollowed it downstream. As they ran downstream a large red building\nwith the word 'MIDAS' stamped in large white letters across it\ncame into view. As they approached it, it became clear that this was\nnot one building, but an immense complex of very old buildings going\nup the side of the mountain. Near the bottom of the buildings a\nslender rabbit stood in the ankle deep water with her hands on her\nhips. \"Yer late.\" she stated in a thick Irish accent as David,\nRoxanne, and Elsie approached the bank.\n\n\"Sorry, mom.\"\nElsie panted for a moment.\n\n\"Who's this,\nthen?\" Nobody responded, instead they just wheezed and coughed.\n\n\"This is Roxanne.\nBe nice to her, Paige, she's shy.\" David said, taking deep\nbreaths. \"Plus I think she has the hots for our little girl.\"\n\n\"Daaad!\" Elsie\nsmacked David on the shoulder with whatever strength she could\nmuster. Roxanne, feeling her anxiety swell up again, looked for\nsomewhere to hide, but decided that she might as well just die of\nembarrassment right there because she was too tired.\n\n\"Hey your daughter\nis abusing me!\" David said with a chuckle.\n\n\"Why don't get\nyer son to help ye?\" Paige asked\n\n\"Heh- that's a\ngood idea! I'll go get him!\" and he began to jog away.\n\n\"While yer at it\ndo us a favor and knick off to Roxanne's gaff and let her parents\nknow where she is and that she might be stayin' with us for the\nnight.\" Paige shouted at David before he got too far.\n\n\"Where does she\nlive?\" David shouted back.\n\n\"Where do ye'\nlive love?\"\n\n\"My house is on\nMiner Street near the library, right across the street from a park.\"\nRoxanne said pointing back in the direction they came from.\n\n\"Is it the color\nof dandelions, by chance?\" Paige said raising an eyebrow.\n\n\"Yeah, how did you\nknow?\"\n\n\"No way!\" Elsie\nexclaimed \"That house is just across the park from ours!\"\n\n\"They live in that\npiss colored a-frame on miner that's been on the market for the\npast year.\" Paige shouted to David.\n\n\"The one across\nPioneer Park?\"\n\n\"That's the\none!\"\n\n\"No shit! I'll\nlet them know.\" And David turned around and continued to jog away.\n\n\"That's another\ndollar you each owe the swear jar now, mom.\" Elsie said.\n\n\"Oi, don't you\nhave some yellow boy to collect?\" Paige said pointing to a\npeculiarly colored section of the river.\n\n\"I'm still\nconfused by this whole 'yellow boy' thing.\" Roxanne said\nscratching her head through her rubber gloves.\n\n\"Take yer'\nrunners off, and I'll show ye\" Paige waded through the water and\nwaved Roxanne over.\n\n\"Runners?\"\n\n\"She means take\noff your sneakers\" Elsie said as she kicked off her shoes.\n\n\"Oh... okay.\"\n\n Roxanne carefully\nremoved her shoes. Then she took her socks off, folded them up and\ngently placed them into her shoes. She took off her backpack and\npropped it up against her shoes. When she finally looked up Elsie and\nPaige were staring at her with a slightly confused face. Roxanne\nlooked around her and noticed that both Paige and Elsie's belonging\nwere scattered everywhere and the only part of the river bank not in\ncomplete disarray was her backpack. It was the one solitary island of\nneatness an ocean of chaotic disorder. \"Well, are you coming?\"\nElsie shouted. Roxanne walked through the chilly river, carefully\nmaking sure there were no sharp stones to stick into her soles before\nputting her full weight onto each foot. When she finally got to Paige\nand Elsie she realized that the odd color of the river was coming\nfrom a nearby tributary. \"This,\" Paige said holding up a small\nhandful of a reddish-yellow powder \"is yellow boy.\" After tossing\nthe powder into a bucket on the shore next to her Paige bent down and\npicked up a small rock out of the river. \"The water from the midas\ngold mine has a lot of iron in it and when it hits the fresh water of\nthe stream the iron comes out and builds up on these stones.\" Paige\npulled a dull knife out of her back pocket and continued to explain\nwhile demonstrating. \"So what we do is we take a butter knife and\nscrape the iron off. Now why don't ye' give it a try.\" Paige\nhanded the knife over to Roxanne.\n\n\"Why do you need\nyellow boy?\" Roxanne said as she struggled with the knife.\n\n\"We make red paint\nwith it.\"\n\n\"Why don't you\njust buy paint?\"\n\n\"I do sometimes,\nbut not if I can help it. Ye' see, I feel that if ye' make yer'\nown paint ye' can feel the colors and watch them go from raw\nproduct, to pigment, to paint, to painting. A part of everyone that\nhelped goes into each painting. I'll be reminded of ye' every time I\nuse the red paint from this pigment, and ye'll be part ah that\npainting as well.\"\n\n\"That's...\nsweet.\" Roxanne smiled and happily continued to scrape the rough\nstones.\n\n\"Well I'll leave\nthe two of ye' to it.\" Paige walked across the river, kicked a\ntowel off the ground, and dried her feet off.\n\n\"So!\" Elsie\nexclaimed.\n\n\"So?\"\n\n\"Do you get it\nnow?\"\n\n\"I think so... I\ncertainly am less confused about a lot of things, at least compared\nto this morning.\"\n\n\"That's good!\"\nElsie grinned and slowly edged closer to Roxanne. \"So, Rox...\"\n\n\"Yeah, E?\"\n\n\"Seeing as we live\nso close to each other we could always visit, right?\"\n\n\"Well my parent's\nprobably wouldn't want me seeing another girl all the time.\"\n\n\"They don't need\nto know about it every time.\"\n\n\"I'm not sure\nif-\"\n\n\"Look, if you\never, and I mean ever, need someone to talk to you can come visit me\nand we can talk and hang out and whatever.\"\n\n\"... Thanks, E.\"\nRoxanne had never before felt happier in her life. Over the coming\nmonths Roxanne would frequently sneak out and visit Elsie. Roxanne\ngot very good at sneaking around and often times she would come over\nlate at night, spending the night with Elsie, waking up just as the\nsun came up to sneak back home before her parents could find out. It\ndidn't take long for Roxanne feel closer to Paige and David than she\never did to her own parents. And every day Roxanne would ask out\nElsie, and every day she would run, and Roxanne would chase her\nbecause she wanted it that much.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nChapter\nV: White Lies\n\n Mica licked the at\nher palm full of fluffy white snow as she walked along the abandoned\nroad; running her long ribbon tongue into the mound she pulled back\nspoonfuls of crisp cold water crystals, they pleasantly melted on the\nroof of her mouth and ran down her gullet. In her mind the muscular\ntiger and slender ocelot from the shack walked alongside her. She had\nan easier time dealing with Diemos or Dolos when Voithós\nwas around to be a buffer. \"Do you know how old you are\ntoday?\" Dolos gave the wolf a sideways glance. She shook her head\nand continued to munch on snow and trudge up the steep street towards\na huge abandoned, decaying house. \"You are Thirty-Seven today...\nhappy birthday by the way.\" He gently whistled 'Happy Birthday to\nYou'.\n\"You must not be a\nvery good judge of age.\" Voithós\nsneered.\n\"You\njust looks young for your age! I know your exact birthday and the\nfact you have such a young face is just good genetics!\" Voithós\nsarcastically scoffed and rolled her eyes. \"It's true Voithós! I\ncan get to the memories she can't!\"\n\"If\nyou can then hows about answer some questions for me?\" Mica looked\nover at Dolos.\n\"Like\nwhat?\" He shrugged.\n\"Like\ntell me about anything\nfrom my childhood, or life before the haven, or even life in\nthe haven before last April?\"\n\"Well\nI can tell you everyone there hates you.\" Mica stopped dead in her\ntracks just in front of the wreckage of the house.\n\"That's\nbullshit.\" Voithós scowled at the large tom.\n\"And\nI mean everyone!\nEspecially Russel, Phil, and Andrew!\"\n\"Dolos...\"\n\"Russel\nresents you because you're unstable and you frighten him,\"\n\"Stop\nlying, Dolos.\"\n\"Andrew\nresents you because your weekly check-ups are a burden on his already\nheavy workload,\"\n\"This\nis not cool, Dolos.\"\n\"and\nPhil resents you because... well...\" Dolos leaned in close to Mica\nand whispered something in her ear, and her eyes widened. He stood\nback up with a disappointed look on his face while she struggled to\nchoke back tears.\n\n\"Whatever\nhe said it can't be true, Mica. Just ignore him.\" Voithós put a\ncomforting hand on her slumped shoulders.\n\"Oh\nit is most definitely true! I would say ask him about it... but\naccording to Tau he's\ndead. So you can't even ask for forgiveness... Shame.\"\n\"Please\ngo away.\" She rasped quietly. \"I have to save my friend and you\naren't helping.\" She pulled herself up a broken staircase onto the\nporch and positioned her rifle on the railing.\n\"He's\nnot your friend, he's just the guy who pretends to like you.\" Mica\nrested her eye in the scope and focused on the downed helicopter\nacross the valley.\n\"Advise,\nVoithós?\"\n\"Approximately\n800 meters to the crash,\" Voithós spoke in her left ear.\n\"If\nyou see that dumb squirrel, shoot him immediately.\"Dolos spoke in\nher right.\n\"Wind\napproximately four knots to the northeast,\"\n\"Put\nhim out of your misery.\"\n\"Make\ncontact.\"\n\"Lure\nhim out.\"\n\"Hey\nDolos?\" Mica licked her lips in anticipation. \"Do me a favor.\npiss off.\"\n\"No.\"\nStated flatly, \"You'll never ever be rid of me.\" Mica flicked on\nher radio and he instantly vanished.\n\n Fear was forefront\nin Russell's mind; it weighed on him like a cinderblock on his\nchest. Just underneath the fear a sliver of boredom was began to\ngrow. He slowly lifted his arm hoping that his watch would\nmiraculously be not completely destroyed. Fuck. He thought to\nhimself. How is it that I am the only thing that managed to\nsurvive the crash? He pressed his thumb against the shattered\ndisplay on his watch and watched the dark liquid flow up and down.\nThis amused him for just long enough to forget his grim situation,\nbut reality came crashing down around him as soon as he tried to lift\nhis leg, only to remember it was still pinned under a large piece of\nfuselage. Russell leaned over and dipped his left forefinger in the\npool of blood that was once his copilot's head and wiped a deep\ncrimson streak onto his sleeve. He counted 12 dark brown streaks next\nto it. Four hours since the crash.\n\n When Russell was\nstressed he would sometimes find solace in mathematics, and the\naddition of a streak to his sleeve made him slightly happy as it gave\nhim the next number in the fibonacci sequence. One survivor. One\ncasualty. Two packs of cigarettes. Three sticks of gum. Five broken\nwindows. Eight fingers on my hand. Thirteen blood stains on my arm.\nTwenty-one blinking lights on the-... wait... something is wrong...\ngo back. He started over, careful not to miss anything. Suddenly\na low rumble came from outside, and soon after two voices. One voice\nwas gutteral and bitter, and the other was much younger sounding.\n\n Russell leaned in\ntowards the wall and tried to make out what the mystery visitors were\nsaying.\n\n\"This must be the\ncrash we were told to find.\"\n\n\"Are you sure?\"\n\n\"Do you see any\nother wrecked choppers around?\"\n\n\"No, but-.\"\n\n\"So shut the fuck\nup and radio it in.\"\n\n\"Outpost India\nHotel this is patrol 17, do you copy?\"\n\n\"...Well?\"\n\n\"Repeat: Outpost\nIndia Hotel this is patrol 17, do you copy?\"\n\n\"What's the\nmatter?\"\n\n\"I'm not getting\na response.\"\n\n\"Fucking\nmountains... why do they have to suck so much?\"\n\n\"Why do you hate\nthe mountains so much?\"\n\n\"Everything sucks\nmore here; the snow is deeper, the temperatures are lower, the wind\nis stronger, it's harder to breathe, and quite frankly just living\naround here makes me ache.\"\n\n\"Some people like\nthe mountains.\"\n \"Some people are\nmorons. Even our radio hates the fucking mountains.\"\n\n\"I like the\nmountains.\"\n\n\"Well you're a\nmoron.\"\n\n\"No I'm not.\"\n\n\"Shut up, yes you\nare.\"\n\n\"Whatever... what\ndo we do now?\"\n\n\"Go in.\"\n\n\"We go in?\"\n\n\"No you go\nin, I'll stand guard out here.\"\n\n\"Why can't I\never be the one who gets to hang around and do nothing but look\nintimidating?\"\n\n\"Because you're\nabout as intimidating as a wet hanky; now get in there or I'll cut\nyour dick off.\" Russell slumped backwards and closed his eyes just\nas the bay door slid open. \"Holy crap.\"\n\n\"What?\"\n\n\"This thing is\nfucked up.\"\n\n\"Thanks captain\nobvious, how about don't talk unless you have something important\nto say.\"\n\n\"...Weird.\"\n\n\"This better be\ngood.\"\n\n\"I only see 2\npeople here.\"\n\n\"So?\"\n\n\"So the filed\nflight plan showed 3 passengers on the manifest... Where's the\nthird?\"\n\n\"I don't know;\nask one of the other two assholes there, and while you're at it ask\nthem why they suck at flying on course.\"\n\n\"I'm not sure if\nthey are even alive.\"\n\n\"Mmaaayybe you\nshould find out.\"\n\n\"Oh... yeah, I\nshould probably do that.\"\n\n\"God you're\nthick 'I should probably do that'. I'm gonna go hang out over\nhere so I don't catch any of your stupid.\"\n\n\"I'm not\nstupid!\"\n\n\"Sorry I can't\nhear you over the sound of me not caring!\"\n\n\"Asshole.\"\n\n Russell listened as\nthe young soldier shuffle around the wreckage while his fink hummed\nnearby. As the footsteps grew closer Russell could feel his heart\nbeat faster. The glass on the floor popped and gave a deep grumble as\nthe soldier's heavy boots shifted. Russell gave out a yelp when a\npair of cold fingers touched his neck. \"AH! Holy shit! You're\nalive!\" The soldier jumped back and lifted his rifle.\n\n\"Please don't\nshoot me!\" Russell covered his face with his arms and flinched.\n\n\"I-... I'm not\ngoing to shoot you.\"\n\n\"You're not?\"\nRussell peaked out from behind his arms.\n\n\"No... Just don't\nmake any sudden moves.\"\n\n\"Does flinching\ncount as a sudden move? I'm kind of prone to flinching.\" Russell\nsniveled.\n\n\"I guess not...We're\ngoing to take you in for some questioning, stand up.\"\n\n\"I wish I could\nbut-.\"\n\n\"But what?! I said\nstand up!\"\n\n\"My leg is pinned!\nPlease don't shoot me!\" Russell flinched again.\n\n\"Sorry! I didn't\nknow!\"\n\n\"Why are we\nshouting?!\"\n\n\"I don't know!\nMaybe it's just nerves!\" The two of them breathed heavily as they\ncalmed their nerves.\n\"... So can we get\nthis thing off me?\"\n\n\"How do I know\nthis isn't a trick?\"\n\n\"What kind of\ntrick could this possibly be?\"\n\n\"I-... I don't\nknow.\"\n\n\"Please this hurts\nmore than you could imagine.\"\n\n\"Promise this\nisn't a trick?\"\n\n\"I promise.\"\n\n\"Okay... what\nshould I do?\"\n\n\"Just pull up this\nbig hunk of metal so I can try to crawl out\" The soldier put his\nrifle down on a nearby console and gripped the fuselage on top of\nRussell, and Russell braced the front edge with his palms. \"Okay\nI'll lift on the count of 3, you be ready to crawl out\"\n\n\"Okay.\"\n\n\"One...Two...Threeee!\"\nAs the soldier rocked backwards the metal gave way and Russell\nmanaged to push himself out from underneath, revealing his noticeably\ndeformed thigh. The pain of moving the 8 inches to the side was\nenough to make Russell to break out in tears. \"Holy shit! You\nshould probably take some pain killers or something!\" The soldier\nexclaimed.\n\n\"I already have\ntons of pain killers in me.\" Russell sobbed and pointed to the\nnearby disaster kit, but the pain began to die back down as he wiped\nthe tears from his eyes.\n\n\"Eww, your leg is\nsuper fucked up... let me get something to splint that.\" The\nsoldier began to search the wreckage for suitable materials to use as\na splint, at the same time Russell used his multi tool to cut open\nhis pants and grabbed his disaster kit. The soldier came back with\ntwo long metal tubes and some short lengths of truncated cable.\nRussell pulled some gauze from the disaster kit and looked\ndisparagingly at his thigh.\n\n\"We need to do a\nreduction on this bone before we splint it.\" Russell said. \"You\nneed to pull back on my leg so I can move the bone.\"\n\n\"Are you sure you\nknow what you're doing?\" The soldier wrapped hands hands around\nthe squirrel's knee and got ready to pull.\n\"No, but I don't\nreally have a choice right now.\" Russell put the gauze in his\nmouth, and let out a muffled 'go'. Russell clenched his jaw and\nhis screaming grew intense as he moved the bone in his leg into its\nproper place. After the reduction was complete he opened his mouth\nand as the gauze bounced down his chest he fell onto his back and let\nout a high pitched shriek and the soldier began to splint his leg.\n\n\"What the fuck is\nwith all the damn racket?!\" The older soldier shouted as he pounded\non a nearby window. \"Sounds like you're trying to skin someone\nalive in there!\"\n\n\"It's the\nsurvivor, his leg is broken!\"\n\n\"He was probably\ndoing something illegal anyway! Just shoot him!\"\n\n\"What?! No!\"\n\n\"It's your\nfunereal rookie.\"\n\n\"I thought we were\nsupposed to help these guys!\"\n\n\"That is your\nproblem right there! You were thinking!\"\n\n\"Why don't you\njust fuck off for a while?\" While the two soldiers continued to\nargue through the window Mica's voice spoke in Russell's ear. \"Come\nin Tau, this is Mu do you copy.\" Russell did not speak; instead he\nslid his hand down to his back and clicked the talk button on his\nradio three times. \"Click twice for no once for yes, do you\nunderstand?\" Click. \"I have visual on one soldier outside\nthe chopper, did he come alone?\" Click-click. \"Are you in\nimmediate danger?\" Click-click. \"I'm gonna send some\nfireworks your way, can you reach your sidearm?\" Click.\n\"Click three times when you're ready, Mu out.\" Russell slowly\nmoved his hand over to his pistol and cocked the hammer.\n\n\"Eight bullets.\"\nRussell said, momentarily forgetting he was not alone.\n\n\"What was that?\"\nthe young soldier looked over to Russell.\n\n\"What?\"\n\n\"I didn't hear\nwhat you said.\"\n\n\"Oh that... I was\njust day dreaming. Don't worry about it.\"\n\n\"I'm gonna to\nhave a cigarette while you idiots sort this shit out!\" The older\nsoldier shouted at the window. Russell firmly gripped his pistol.\nClick-click-click. The older soldier lit up his cigarette and\nimmediately afterwards a bullet went through his jaw, completely\ntearing it off his face. Two seconds later a faint pop was heard. He\nspun around and his face ended up on the window with his tongue\nflailing about as he was gargling blood. The young soldier looked\ndeep into his dark green eyes and another massive bullet tunneled\nthrough his forehead and shattered the window. The soldier's\nlifeless body slid backwards into the snow as another faint pop was\nheard. Mica had to go and fuck up my numbers! Russell thought\nto himself as he drew his pistol, and fired off three quick shots\ninto the fink.\n\n\"Please don't do\nanything rash. I hate hurting people.\" Russell said with a slight\njitter in his voice, yet his hand remained completely steady as he\nturned the pistol towards the remaining soldier.\n\n\"A-... are you a\ndefector?\"\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\n\"So, what are you\ngoing to do to me?\"\n\n\"I'm not sure\nyet, but for now we're going to wait here for Mica... she'll get us\nhome again.\"\n\n\"Who?\"\n\n\"Mica is my young\nfriend who managed to kill that other guy from a kilometer away.\"\n\n\"Oh... well what\nabout in the mean time?\"\n\n\"Help me find a\nnew eight.\"\n\n\n The deep thrumming\ngroan of Elsie walking down the stairs abruptly pulled Roxanne out of\nher nostalgia and back into reality. Roxanne quickly rewrapped the\npainting and filed it back among the others. After Roxanne replaced\nthe lid of her box, she kissed the palm of her hand and placed it\nover the key hole, and with one mighty push she moved the grate back\ninto its rightful spot.\n\n\"Rox?!\" Elsie's\nsudden exclamation startled Roxanne and she reeled back hitting her\nhead on the top of the fireplace opening.\n\n\"Ow...\" Roxanne\nbrushed ashes off of her head.\n\n\"There you are!\nWhat were you even doing in there Rox?\"\n\n\"Uh... cleaning...\nyeah... I was cleaning.\"\n\n\"Suuuure you\nwhere, and I totally spent the last 45 minutes being born instead of\ngetting dressed.\"\n\n\"Look E, just drop\nit...\"\n\n\"I wanna know what\nyou are hiding from me!\"\n\n\"I'm not about\nto just blurt out my secrets to you.\"\n\n\"Why not? You have\nbeen doing since the day I met you.\"\n\n\"Well, I'm not\ngoing to today.\"\n\n\"Come oooooonnnnn\nRooooox.\"\n\n\"No E, I just-.\"\n\"Please!?\"\n\n\"No Elsie! Just\ntrust me when I say it's best for both of us if you don't know!\"\n\n\"Is it a dead\nbody?\"\n\n\"No.\"\n\n\"A brick of solid\ngold you stole from an orphan?\"\n\n\"No Elsie...\"\n\n\"Is it a dildo?\"\n\n\"Elsie-\"\n\n\"Is it a solid\ngold dildo you stole from a dead orphan?!\"\n\n\"Stop prying\nElsie!\"\n\n\"Just give me a\nhint.\"\n\n\"It... It's just\nsome stuff I'm hanging onto in case of... change...\"\n\n\"Oh for fuck's\nsake Rox!\" Elsie rubbed her face in frustration.\n\"What?\"\n\n\"How many do you\nhave?\"\n\n\"How many what?\"\n\n\"Don't!... Don't\nplay dumb with me Rox.\"\n\n\"...\nTwenty-Seven.\" Elsie shot her an angry glance.\n\"I told you to\nburn those! If you get caught with them-.\"\n\n\"If I get caught\nwith them then I will likely be interrogated, abused, and executed,\nand I will have died with no regrets! But if I get rid of them then\nthe world will have lost the works of a great artist for no good\nreason.\"\n\n\"How can you bitch\nabout me running around at night and risking getting caught, and have\nno problem risking your own ass?\"\n\n\"Because I need a\nreminder of what it used to be like sometimes! And hopefully\nso will the rest of the country someday!\"\n\n\"If that's the\nway you feel then we should go find the defec-.\"\n\n\"Stop right there,\nE! We are not discussing this again! I cannot be part of that!\"\n\n\"Fine!\" Elsie\nlet out a long agitated sigh and folded her arms. \"I love you,\nRox.\" The tall vixen stepped forward and wrapped her paws around\nher small doe, and her love was almost immediately reciprocated. The\ntwo women squeezed each other tightly and the bunny hummed sweetly as\nRoxanne's dark lips pressed against her forehead.\n\"I love you to\nElsie... we better get a move on if we don't want Walt to think we\nditched him\"\n\n Outside it was too\ncold for the finks to operate for extended periods, so instead of\ntheir usual humming about they stayed perched in charge ports idling\ntheir rotors and only moving out to broadcast the hierarchy's\ndictats or interrogate passersby. Elsie took a deep breath and let\nthe cold air fill up her lungs, and they set out down the road. Not\nfar down the road a fink lazily crossing the street turned towards\nthe couple and loudly announced \"Suicide is strictly against the\nlaw! If you attempt or commit suicide it will serve as an admission\nof guilt on the charges of high treason and your family, friends, and\nco-laborers can face fines, imprisonment, or even execution!\nRemember; your life could cost everyone!\"\n\n\"Thanks... I\nguess?\" Roxanne said incredulously.\n\n\"You are welcome\ncitizen!\" After a moment of silence Elsie cut in.\n\n\"So... can we go?\"\n\n\"What is your\nbusiness?\"\n\n\"Banana croutons!\nTrimmed pubes make the air attack whistle!\" Roxanne blurted loudly.\n\n\"Identify\nyourself!\"\n\n\"Give me your\nperfume E.\" Roxanne whispered before shouting. \"It's about time\nfor the sardines! Can you smell tomorrow?!\" Elsie slipped her\nperfume to Roxanne.\n\n\"What is your\nident number?\" Roxanne began discretely spraying perfume in the\nfink's camera.\n\n\"My supervisor is\ndefusing quadratic equations!\"\n\n\"What are you\ndoing Rox?\" Elsie whispered.\n\n\"With the right\nwords in a random sentence someone will eventually directly take over\nthis thing and we can get through this way faster.\" Roxanne\nwhispered back, and then continued to shout nonsense and spray\nperfume.\n\n\"That burrito bomb\nis the skin of officer, pajamas!\"\n\n\"Error! Please\nrepeat your ident number.\"\n\n\"Ivan can sure\nbite Andrew's cold defector runners!\"\n\n\"Error! Please\nrepeat your ident number.\"\n\n\"Egg fan? Jump the\nfoundry's grammar haven!\"\n\n\"Stand by!\" The\nfink said mechanically. After another moment a sentient voice came\nthrough the fink's speakers. \"What seems to be the problem here?\"\nRoxanne cleared her throat.\n\n\"I'm not sure,\nwhy?\"\n\n\"I seem to have\nseveral red flags from the last few seconds of conversation.\"\n\n\"Don't quote me\non this, but I think your fink- er, monitor may be malfunctioning, if\nyou check the text logs it will show that I simply stated my business\nand then identified myself.\"\n\n\"There seems to be\nan obstruction on the camera lens could you wipe it off for me while\nI check these logs?\"\n\nRoxanne wiggled her\nthumb about half an inch in front of the camera, and rubbed the\nmicrophone under it with her other hand. \"Is that better?\"\n\n\"No apparent\nchange and these logs show nothing but gibberish. Can you give me\nyour ident number?\" Roxanne gently gripped the bottom of the fink\nand began to pull it down.\n\n\"Sure thing\nofficer! My ident number is- Woah! This little guy is starting to\nlose some altitude!\" \"Hmm... look this monitor does appear to be\ncompromised and I need you to-.\"\n\n\"Uhh officer if\nyou don't mind I was on time for an appointment but thanks to this\ndebacle I'm now running late, can you just let me go?\" Roxanne\nsaid angrily.\n\n\"I'm very sorry\nmiss! Here I'm gonna have this monitor print out a late pardon for\nyou, and in return I need you to drop it off at the nearest charge\nport for pickup.\"\n\n\"Sure thing\nofficer!\" Roxanne said now kneeling on the ground in front of the\nfink. After a couple seconds a small receipt buzzed out the back of\nthe monitor and the rotors stopped moving.\n\n\"Thanks for the\nperfume, E. you can have it back now.\" Roxanne tossed the perfume\nback to Elsie, and then ripped the receipt out of the fink and\ngingerly picked it up. Elsie just gawped at her.\n\n\"Where the fuck\ndid that come from?\" Elsie asked.\n\n\"What? I'm just\nbetter with machines than people.\"\n\n\"I'll say! Why\ncan't you be this innovative when an idiotic cop barges into your\nhouse?\"\n\n\"I dunno... I just\nget... nervous... I guess.\" Roxanne quietly replied while setting\nthe fink down on a vacant charge port. \"So anyway... Walt must be\nwondering where we are.\"\n\nElsie let out a\nshort sigh. \"I suppose you're right, let's get going.\"\n\n Elsie slid one of\nher arms under Roxanne's elbow and slid her other hand into her\njacket pocket. \"Oh you've gotta be shitting me.\" Elsie said\nquietly.\n\n\"What?\" Elsie\nbegan searching her pockets one by one.\n\n\"Something is\nmissing.\"\n\n\"What?\"\n\n\"I said something\nis missing.\"\n\n\"I know what you\nsaid I meant what are you missing?\"\n\n\"It's a little\nbox with-, motherfucker where is it?\"\n\n\"What?!\"\n\n\"It's a\nsurprise, okay!?\"\n\n\"Geez, I'm\nsorry.\"\n\n\"Maybe I left it\nat my apartment.\"\n\n\"Ooh no you don't!\nYou promised you we would go to this together! Anywhere you go, I'm\ncoming with!\"\n\n\"If you come along\nit'll ruin the surprise, and it takes me two minutes to get to my\napartment from here, and if you tag along it will take five times\nlonger, plus like you said Walt must be worrying. Just go ahead and\nI'll be there five minutes after you.\"\n\n\"Does it mean that\nmuch to you?\"\n\n\"Yes, it does.\"\n\n\"Alright, but if\nyou are 1 second over 5 minutes late I'm swear I'll punch you\nright in your screwed up arm.\"\n\n\"Thanks, Rox. You\nkick ass!\" Elsie set a timer on her bottom watch and began to run\naway before Roxanne grabbed her arm and pulled her into a hug.\nRoxanne leaned in and whispered into Elsie's ear \"You better get\nrunnin' rabbit, or the big bad fox might just eat you up.\" Then\nshe bit down hard on Elsie's ear and a single drop of warm salty\nblood dripped on her tongue.\n\n\"Ow! Not so hard!\"\nElsie exclaimed and pulled away from Roxanne.\n\n\"It's so you\ndon't forget me.\"\n\n\"I never will.\nTrust me, you're unforgettable!\" Elsie gave a warm toothy grin\nand bolted off. Roxanne savored the sight of Elsie running for a bit\nbefore continuing on her way, little did she know that that was the\nlast time she would see Elsie's smile.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nChapter\nVI: The Blackout\n\n With a spry bounce\nElsie grabbed onto the bottom rung of her fire escape and pulled\nherself up. She was still slightly panicked as she jogged up the\nsteps and opened up her window. Once inside her apartment she started\nto search the drawers of the desk in her bedroom. After her search\ncame up fruitless she dropped down to her knees and pressed her face\nto the ground, then she lifted up the skirt of her bed and blindly\nthrashed her hand around in the darkness. Her hand suddenly tapped up\nagainst a tiny cardboard box, pushing it just far enough away that\nElsie could only get her nails on the very edge of it. \"Son of a\nbitch.\" She whispered to herself. While trying to finagle the box\nback into her hand she accidentally pushed it further under the bed.\n\"Son of a bitch.\" She said. She dropped her hips to the ground\nand recklessly pulled herself under the frame and banged her shin\nagainst one of the bed posts. \"OW! Son of a bitch!\" She\nexclaimed. Elsie's reach was just close enough to get a good grip\non the box, when it was securely in her hand she wiggled out from\nunder the bed.\n\n Her heart was still\nbeating so hard she could feel the blood pumping in her head as she\npulled herself onto the bed and opened up the box. She let out a long\nsigh of relief when she saw its contents were still intact. Inside\nwas a small ring made of copper wiring, several resistors and\ncapacitors had been salvaged from various old electronics and woven\namong the copper. A small paper ribbon was tied around the ring with\nthe words \"can I keep you?\" inscribed on it. Elsie closed the lid\nof the box and slid it into her jacket pocket, and felt the ring\nrattle inside. She frowned slightly and grabbed the box again and set\nit on top of her dresser. She pulled open the top drawer and procured\na roll of masking tape. At that moment her watch let out a loud beep.\nAfter turning off the alarm Elsie tore off a small piece of tape and\nsecured the ring on the inside of the box. Elsie closed the lid of\nthe box and gave it a little shake, satisfied that the ring no longer\nbanged against the side she returned it to her jacket pocket.\n\n Her heart continued\nto pound despite the ring being secured, and now her stomach was also\nin knots. Marriage between two people of the same sex was purely\nsymbolic these days, but Roxanne still believed in it and that more\nthan enough for Elsie to propose. Even though she knew beyond the\nshadow of a doubt that Roxanne was the love of her life and that she\nfelt the same about Elsie, and even after she reassured herself over\nand over that there was no way Roxanne would say 'no' to her, Elsie\nwas far more nervous that she ever was during any one of her late\nnight raids. Thinking she was going to throw up Elsie went to the\nbathroom and knelt over the toilet. She rested her head up against\nthe cold porcelain tank and let out a few deep breaths, but after\nnothing happened she felt confident that she was not going to vomit.\nStill breathing through pursed lips she returned to the kitchen and\npulled open the freezer and grabbed a hold of the almost empty bottle\nof vodka. She reconsidered drinking the clear intoxicant as she\nwanted a completely clear head for what she was planning to do, so\ninstead pulled open the fridge and grabbed a small jug.\n\n Elsie pried the lid\nof the jug open and drank down the final dregs of milk inside, as the\nsweet liquid poured down the back of her throat her heart calmed. She\nlicked the rim clean as small drops of milk gathered on it. After\nrinsing out the jug she set it down on the drying rack next to her\nsink. Elsie let out a long sigh and shook out her entire body, and\nthen she walked towards her door. Before she reached the door her\nphone began to buzz next to her breast. After fishing her phone out\nof her front pocket Elsie glanced it for a moment as Roxanne's face\nflashed across the screen before hitting the answer button.\n\n\"Rox! Don't say\na word, I know I'm running late, but trust me when I say it will\ndefinitely be worth it! And I am so so so sorry! I promise that I\nwill make it up to you\"\n\n\"But E, I-.\"\n\n\"Didn't I just\nsay don't say a word?\" Suddenly a loud knock came from the door\nin front of Elsie. \"Shit! Now there's someone at my door,\nprobably the fucking landlord again. Let me just get rid of him and\nI'll be there lickety-split.\" Elsie blindly hit a button on her\nphone and stowed it back in her jacket, as the knocking became more\nintense. \"I'm coming, chill out!\" Elsie shouted at the door as\nshe pulled it open \"What is it this time Ja-.\" Elsie froze in the\ndoorway. The shotgun toting security officer standing in the hallway\nspoke through his teeth.\n\n\"Good afternoon\nMs. Vedas.\" He loosened his neck before continuing, \"Would you\nobject to a search of your residence?\"\n\n\"Well I-.\" The\nsecurity officer backhanded her across the face, knocking her back\ninto the apartment. \"Thank you for being so co-operative Ms.\nVedas.\" He said threateningly as he stepped inside and slammed the\ndoor shut behind him. \"Y'see we have reason to believe there is\nillegal activity happening here.\" The security officer grabbed\nElsie by one of her long ears and pulled her close. \"Please know\nthat we are not responsible for any property damage that may occur\nduring the search.\" The soldier reeled back and slammed Elsie's\nface into the wall hard enough to make the flimsy wood cave in and\nfall away. Elsie's mouth began to fill up with blood, she gasped\nfor air and ran her tongue across her teeth and felt a molar come\nloose. \"What the fuck is that?\" The soldier said peering into the\nwall, still holding Elsie with his free hand. \"Answer me, what is\nin the wall?!\" The soldier pulled Elsie's face up to his mask and\nshook her head. \"Answer me, you bitch! What is in the fucking\nwall?!\" He screamed at her. Without missing a beat Elsie closed her\nmouth and inhaled deeply though her nose then spit her loose molar on\nhis face along with a viscous mouthful of deep crimson blood and\nsaliva.\n\n\"Fuck you. That's\nwhat's in the fucking wall, a great big batch of fuck you.\"\n\n\"Now... that was\nnot a smart thing to do.\" The security officer said as he brought\nhis knee up into Elsie's lower gut, causing her to double over as\nhe let go of her ear. He tore the mask off his face, grabbed a firm\ngrip of his shotgun and cocked it. As soon as Elsie regained her\nfooting and stood back up the security officer loosed a shot from his\nshotgun, the bright red beanbag hit Elsie square in the solar plexus\nand knocked the wind out of her. As Elsie laid flat on her back\nstruggling to inhale the security officer calmly walked up to her and\nsquatted next to her. \"Y'know, I never understood why the\nmatriarch put up with you faggots... I guess she felt even freaks\ncould do their fucking job in a pinch.\" Resting his gun on his\nknees the security officer pulled his gloves tight then leaned in to\nElsie's face. \"If it were up to me, you would all be put down for\ngood, but I guess seeing the shit that they do to you will bring me\njust as much satisfaction.\" Using all his strength the security\nofficer punched Elsie in the face, knocking her out. After regaining\nconsciousness a few seconds later the security officer's boot was\nresting on her neck as he rummaged through the wall. \"Holy shit!\nYou're Envy!\" he said as he produced a plastic container of paint\nand a brush from the wall, along with Elsie's black book of sketches.\n\"Well this is my lucky fucking day... I'll probably get a\npromotion and a medal for this shit. I'd even bet they'd give me any\nassignment I ask for after this.\" The security officer reached in\nhis back pocket and produced a small black bag and a pair of\nhandcuffs. \"When you talked back to me this morning I figured I\nwould just plant some evidence on you to punish you, but I never\nexpected to make a bust like this. I suppose I should thank you for\nletting me do whatever the hell I want for the rest of my career.\"\nElsie had no strength left to put of a struggle as the security\nofficer rolled her onto her back and cuffed her hands. \"Elsie\nVedas, you are under arrest for unlicensed possession of controlled\nsubstances, subversive behavior, treason, violating curfew, assault\nof an officer, and resisting arrest.\" He pulled her up to her knees\nand rolled the black bag over her head. After being blindly led down\nthe stairs of her apartment Elsie was tossed into the back of a car\nand the door was slammed behind her. Elsie sat in silence and was\nsurprised to hear a sobbing sound coming from her front pocket.\n\n\"Rox? Oh shit Rox\nI'm so sorry, I must have hit speaker phone instead of hang up.\"\nRoxanne continued to sob though the phone. \"You shouldn't have been\nput through this.\"\n\"Elsie... tell me\nthis isn't real.\"\n\n\"I'm so sorry\nRox. I wish I could.\"\n\n\"Oh E, please tell\nme that everything is going to be okay.\"\n\n\"I can't do that,\nRox.\"\n\"Please!\nPl-e-he-he-ease.\"\n\"... Would you\nhave married me, Rox?\"\n\"Of course!\nJust... please whatever you do don't forget me.\"\n\"I won't, I\npromise, you're unforgettable... Just run.\"\n\n \n Walter\nswirled the coffee around the bottom of his cup, and watched as the\nwarm remains washed over the undissolved sugar crystals. After\ngulping down the last mouthful of sweet coffee he looked out the\nwindow across the shop. Roxanne had been standing out in the swarming\nsnow for some time, and Walter was getting bored. He fished the phone\nout of his pocket and began to thumb through the menus until he found\nthe saved pictures. One in particular he was eager to ask Elsie\nabout, it was a slightly blurry photo of a rare piece of street art\nthat Walter had managed to take before the security officers had had\na chance to cordon off the area. The hiss of wind and jingling of\nbells on the shop door caught Walter's attention; he looked up to\nsee Roxanne walking briskly towards him with her head down. \"So\nwhat's Elsie's ETA?\" Without saying a word Roxanne fell onto\nWalter and held him close and he could feel her wet tears dripping\ndown his neck. \"What's wrong Roxanne?\" \"I have to go...\"\nshe replied in a wavering voice.\"Should we\nreschedule?\"\"Goodbye Walt, I'll miss you.\" She gave him a\nsqueeze then stood up and walked towards the door. \"What do you\nmean goodbye? What happened?!\" As soon as Roxanne was clear of the\ndoor she sprinted away. After fishing his wallet out of his pocket\nWalter tossed a few bills on the table and ran out the door, but it\nwas too late, Roxanne was nowhere in sight.\n\n\n\nWithout\nmaking any amount of eye contact Roxanne effortlessly snaked her way\nthrough the crowds on the sidewalks. After she had made a little\ndistance the vixen ducked down an alley, wiped her tears on her\nsleeve, and squatted down behind a dumpster. She rolled her phone in\nthe palm of her dark paw and popped the back open; after she took out\nthe battery she removed a couple small electronic chips, pocketed the\nsmaller of the two and dropped the other on the ground. She cleared a\nspot of snow then upended her purse onto the soaked concrete and\nsnagged a smallish electronic contraption and her wallet from among\nthe makeup kits and receipts. After sliding a long ribbon cable from\nthe contraption into the larger of the vacant slots of her phone she\nthreaded the cable under the battery and replaced the back, then she\nstood up, crushed the miniscule chip on the ground under her heel and\nset off for her home.\n\nShe\nhad planned for the worst eventualities for years, but having been so\nabruptly thrust into such an execrable situation had left Roxanne's\nmind swimming in a tumultuous torrent of rage and sorrow. It was hard\nto see into her home's windows with tears in her eyes, so she took a\nmoment to calm down and clear her eyes of lachryma. After a few\nminutes of investigation she was confident that no one was inside she\nsnuck in the back door and tore off her sweater. She snagged Elsie's\nhoodie from the living room couch and pulled it on as she ascended\nthe stairs to her room; she paused when she felt a draft on her arm.\nThe fox paused and stared at her arm through the hole in the sleeve\nbefore she lifted it to her face and snuffled. The vinegary scent of\nsweat and blood was fetid, yet distinctly Elsie's. Roxanne began to\nwell up again before she slapped her self across the face and spoke\nto herself in the harshest tone she could muster. \"Roxanne Metz!\nThis is no time for crying! You need to concentrate and get\nout of here!\nThere will be time to mourn later!\"\nShe nodded to herself and continued up the stairs. In her closet she\nretrieved a large duffle bag and plain brown box with the word\n'garbles' written on the side of it in permanent ink from the\nshelf above her cloths along with a long black denim duster. Inside\nthe box was a home-made holster with several jury-rigged gadgets\nattached to it, an envelope stuffed with currency, a mask almost\nidentical to the one Elsie would wear on her nights out only designed\nto fit over Roxanne's long snout, and thirty or so small round\ncontraptions that appeared similar to the one she had previously\nfastened to her phone all sealed in tiny plastic packets. Roxanne\nrested the mask on her forehead, clipped the holster over her\nshoulder, stuffed the two of the envelopes into her back pocket,\ndonned the duster and strapped it onto her legs and waist. Then she\nsnagged a small fistful of the devices, ran to the bathroom and threw\nthe garbles into the toilet. They bobbed on the surface of the water,\nand Roxanne watched as she flushed and the little machines swirled\ndown the drain. She tugged the mask on her forehead into place,\npulled the hood of her sweater over her head and pulled the draw\nstrings tight, then gazed at her reflection in the mirror before\nheading out of the bathroom.\n\nAfter\nfinishing up upstairs she went straight to the kitchen and seized any\nand all alcohol she had in her pantry. One by one she opened up the\nbottles and splashed the contents on the floors and walls of her\nhouse and finally ended up at her fireplace. Roxanne dragged the\nmetal grate out of her fireplace and dug through the soot until she\nfound a large keyhole far back in the fireplace. Roxanne grabbed A\nkey from her tool belt, and carefully placed it in the keyhole. With\na twist the entire box popped slightly out of the fireplace,\nrevealing two small handles on the side of the fiberglass container.\nWith some labor she managed to free the box from the fireplace,\nexposing two long straps on the side. Roxanne slid the heavy chest\nonto her back, and ran back to the kitchen, and then she threw her\nbag over her shoulder and tucked the garbles under her arm. Just\nbefore leaving for good she grabbed one of her makeshift gadgets from\nher holster, a tiny squirt gun filled with a combustible liquid and a\nsparking mechanism on the front attached to the trigger. A squeeze of\nthe trigger loosed a short lived yet brilliant flame that caused the\nlatent alcohol in the building to ignite. The heat of her house\nbeginning to become a great inferno was heavy on her back as she\nsprinted away.\n\nRoxanne\nslowly approached the young fox in the park from behind. \"What's\nyour name, kid?\" The fox replied without looking up from his\nbike.\"Thomas Messenger, my name is Thomas but my daddy called\nme Tommy. His name wasn't messenger though; mister gave me that\nname, that's what I do.\"\"Mister who?\"Thomas inhaled\nand tapped his fist against his forehead and rocked back and forth.\n\"Mister... Mister... I don't remember, he's just mister to me.\nMister told me what I do now. Mister knows best.\"\"You look\nlike you could use a little more money Tommy.\"\"Mister says I\ndid something bad, so Mister says I can't have too much money.\nMister lets me have food though.\"\n\n\"How\nold are you, Thomas?\"\"Mister says I was 12 when I did bad\nstuff, and I think that was 2 winters ago.\"\"Where is your\ndad?\"\"I lived with daddy before, in a house, Bur-.\" Thomas\nrubbed his palm against his forehead. \"I don't think about before\nanymore.\" Thomas stood up and began to turn around, but Roxanne\nstopped him. \"I need you not to look at me Thomas.\"\"Well\nwhat's your name?\"\"uhh... call me missus... I'm friends\nwith Mister and he says you have been very good.\"\"Really?\nMister is happy with me?\"\"Yes Tommy, Mister wants to give you\na little test. I'm gonna give you a box of little packets and a\nlist of cross streets.\"\"Messages?\"\"Sure Tommy,\nMessages.\"\"Who's the recipient?\"\"That's part of\nthe test Tommy, you need put the messages onto the nearest car when\nyou get to the destinations.\"\"How?\"\"Just like this.\"\nRoxanne grabbed one of the garbles and tossed it on his bike, and\nzipped on to the metal frame with ease.\"Okay.\"\"How fast\ncan you cover 100 blocks?\"\"100 blocks. With traffic and the\nsnow I can do that in about an hour. Mister says I'm one of the\nfastest messengers around. Can I look at you now, missus?\"\"Hang\non for second. Close your eyes.\" Thomas closed his eye and Roxanne\nspun him around, and fished a long metal device from her tool belt.\n\"Hold still, Tommy.\" She began to pat down his chest until she\nfelt a hard spot on it. She peered at it and could see the lens of a\ntiny camera in it. She pressed the button on top of her little device\nand a brilliant blue beam poured out of it, frying the sensor of\nTommy's body camera. \"Okay Tommy, you can look at me now.\"\nThomas blinked a few times and rubbed his eye.\"Why are you\nwearing a mask, Missus?\"\"Mister likes it when I wear masks.\"\nRoxanne held out the box of garbles. \"Here are your messages; the\naddresses are inside the box. When you are finished come back here\nfor your reward.\"\"You'll give me my reward?\"\"If you\ndo well, your reward will be here waiting for you, Tommy.\"\"Okay\nMissus, I can do that.\" Thomas fished a piece of paper from the\nbox, put the box in his bag and mounted his bike. \"Oh! And Tommy?\"\nRoxanne shouted before he biked off.\"Yes Missus?\"\"There\nwill be a note just for mister with your reward, give it to him if he\nasks about today.\"\"Yes Missus!\" as he rode off into the\nblizzard Roxanne grabbed a packet of bills from her envelopes and\nplaced it in the toolbox Thomas had left behind.\n\n\nRoxanne\nwas reclining under a tree staring at her watch as the seconds ticked\nby; occasionally glancing around to make sure no one was nearby.\nEventually she stood up and walked over to the nearby set of\nbinoculars. She fished a coin from her pocket and pushed it into a\nslot on the back of the heavy metal binoculars and gave the knob a\ntwist. The binoculars whirred mechanically as she peered through\nthem. It wasn't as if Roxanne didn't have a pair of binoculars of\nher own because she did, exceptionally good ones too, she just liked\nthe pay binoculars; Maybe it was the weight, or maybe the white noise\nthey created, she couldn't put her finger on it but something about\nthem just made her feel almost at home. As she watched vigilantly for\nThomas to come back to his little nook Roxanne reached into her coat\npocket and retrieved her phone, and mindlessly ran her nails over its\nkeys. After a little bit of time Roxanne spotted Thomas returning\nacross the park, and just then the binoculars gave a little ring and\nshut closed. Roxanne powered on her phone and dialed emergency\nservices; she took a deep breath before hitting send. She set the\nphone down under the tree and set off towards the checkpoint out of\nthe city. In no time silence of winter was suddenly disrupted by the\nsounds of blaring sirens and buzzing finks and the entire city turned\nto panic.\nAs\nRoxanne snuck up to the check point there were two men standing guard\non the road. Roxanne let out a loud scream before stumbling towards\nthem, covering her face with her hands before dropping to her knees\nin front of them.\n\"What's\nwrong?!\" one of them said panicked.\n\"It's\nmy husband! He's just been stabbed! Over there!\" Roxanne pointed\nto where she came from. \"Please help him!\"\n\"We\ncan't leave-\"\n\"Please!\nHe's dying and his murderer is getting away because you won't\nhelp him!\"\n\"We-...\nI-... Shit! Come on! The fink can watch the post for just a minute!\"\nAnd they jogged past Roxanne. Roxanne stood up and pulled the flaming\nsquirt gun from her holster and sprayed it directly at the fink. The\nflame licked the body of the robot and curled through its propellers,\nand it sparked, seized up, and fell inert into the snow. Roxanne\nbolted off into the blinding snow while the guards were busy looking\nfor people that didn't exist. Escaping the city was the easy part\nas far as Roxanne was concerned, now she had a nearly sixty-five\nkilometer hike through wilderness, abandoned roads, and irradiated\ntowns to get to safety, all during one of the heaviest snowstorms in\nrecent history.\n\n\n\n\nChapter\nVII: Getting the Blues\n\n\"Aren't\nyou worried about leaving behind tire tracks?\" The soldier\nasked.\"Didn't I tell you that I don't want to hear your\nfucking voice?\" Mica barked back. \"The only reason you don't\nhave a hole instead of a brain right now is because Tau asked me not\nto cap you as soon as I came in.\"\n\"He does make a\nfair point though...\" Russell offered from the back seat.\n\n\"This snow is\naccumulating fast enough that by the time they start to look for us\nour tracks will probably be covered, plus we'll ditch the car in one\nof the burner caves and take the tunnel back. Mind you this wouldn't\nbe a problem if we still had a fucking helicopter!\"\n\"Who dosed your\ncoffee with bitch this morning? I mean you are usually pretty grumpy\nand all, Mica, but today-.\"\n\"Last night my\nmission went about as badly as it could have without me getting\ncaught and today I found out that I have to go rescue the\nasshole who was supposed to be rescuing me! And on top of that\nhe won't stop using my name in front of the enemy!\"\n\"Who is he going\nto tell? His dickheaded dead partner? We're going to the defectors\nhaven, where he'll most likely be interrogated; then when it turns\nout he knows next to nothing he'll pressed into service. As far as\nI'm concerned he's not an enemy anymore.\" Russell leaned\nforward and extended his hand. \"I'm Russell.\"\n\"I'm Kevin.\"\nThe soldier shook Russell's hand nervously.\n\n\"Thanks for\nhelping me with the whole... leg... thing.\" Russell gestured to his\nsplint.\n\"You're welcome,\nI guess, shouldn't you get some rest?\"\n\n\"Probably, but if\nI do Mica will most likely try to kill you.\"\n\"I said I\nwouldn't and I meant it! Just get some sleep so I can get some\nquiet for a bit, okay tau?\" Mica said sweetly.\n\"If I wake up and\nhe's dead I'm gonna be pretty upset, Mu.\" Russell said\nin a mocking voice.\n\"Just go to sleep,\nor I will kill him!\"\n\"... alright.\"\nRussell leaned back and closed his eyes. It wasn't long until he\nbegan to snore lightly.\n\n\"So... Mica is it?\nIs that your real name?\"\n\"So, dead idiot,\ndo you like having a dick?\" Mica's voice turned bitter once\nagain. She held up her side arm and pulled back the hammer with her\nthumb.\n\"I'm just trying\nto pass the time.\"\n\"You're awfully\ntalkative for a POW.\" Mica put the gun down on her lap.\n\"It was my first\nday out of-\"\n\"I don't care.\"\n\"I'm just saying\nthat I wasn't too-\"\n\"I'm just saying\nshut up so I don't shoot you in the face.\" Kevin opened his\nmouth to say something and immediately reconsidered. His eyes\nwandered to Russell as the squirrel snoozed in the back seat, then\nover at Mica who simply glared back at him from time to time. He\ncontinued to stare at Mica for some time and every time she glanced\nback her face conveyed more worry and anger.\n\"Could you not\nstare at me? I'm trying to focus on the road and you're weirding\nme the fuck out.\"\n\"What road? We're\nin the middle of nowhere.\"\n\"Even more reason\nfor me to concentrate on the area I'm driving into... Just look out\nthe damn window or something.\"\n\"Did anyone tell\nyou how gorgeous you are?\"\n\"What did I just\nsay about weirding me out?! Just stare out the window before\nsomething awful happens to you.\" Kevin's gaze lingered for a\ncouple seconds before he complied and stared out the window next to\nhim. Mica let out a long sigh and shook her head as she quickly and\ncarefully serpentined through the dense forest. The snow was still\ncoming down hard and the sun's rays were diffused across the cloud\ncovered sky. Mica rolled down the window let the calm snowflakes and\ncrisp sweet winter air wander into the Humvee. The snow effectively\nsilenced the usual sounds of the forest, and the only sounds were the\nlow rumble of the engine and the squeaking snow under the tires.\n\n In the deafening\nsilence Mica's subconscious began to re-awaken. Indistinguishable\nvoices seemingly whispered to her though her earpiece. Suddenly one\nvery distinct voice shouted through to her. \"Say your name!\"\nDeimos screamed at her. Without saying a word Mica slammed on the\nbrakes, holstered her gun, jumped out of the car, ripped out her\nearpiece, crushed it in her palm. and threw the remains into the\nforest. When she got back in the car Deimos appeared in her rear view\nmirror. \"Say it!\"\nhe repeated. Mica snatched her pistol and swung around only to see\nnothing but aspen trees burdened by the heavy snow, and an\nunconscious squirrel. \"A-... Are you-?\" Kevin stammered.\n\"I'm\nfine, shut the fuck up.\" Mica stared out the windshield and\ncontinued on into the forest.\n\"I-.... Okay.\"\nFor some time it was\nsilent again, but after about ten minutes Russel began to stir. \"No,\nshe's here with me...\" he said lazily. \"What do you mean?...\nPanic?... No I don't-... well it sounds kind of like our MO... lemme\ncheck.\" Russel punched the back of the driver's seat. \"Mica! Turn\non your damn radio!\" He groaned.\n\n\"It broke.\" She\nsaid coldly.\n\n\"How did it\nbreak?\"\n\"Deimos...\"\nRussel rubbed his\neye sockets. \"You've been seeing Deimos again? You really shouldn't\nbe isolated for this long again.\"\n\n\"Why not?\"\n\"Because when\nyou're alone for that long your mind goes soft, and you start\nto beat yourself up with Deimos.\"\n\"Pfft, whatever.\nWhat's so important anyway.\"\n\"Alex-\"\n\"Alpha!\"\n\"Sorry,\nAlpha wants to know if\nyou know anything about what's happening in Beltzgrad.\"\n\"No,\nwhy would I?\"\n\"Well\nyou where just there last night.\"\n\"I'm\nnot omniscient though, what's happening?\"\n\"Lots.\"\n\"Care\nto elaborate?\"\n\"Apparently\nthere are tons of emergency calls coming in from all over the city,\nall simultaneously reporting everything from fires, to riots, bombs\nand murders? All of them seem to be false reports, but the calls keep\ncoming in and moving around. Alpha is telling me that security forces\nare having trouble locking down the city because of the sheer panic\nthis whole thing has created.\"\n\"That\nsort of sounds like something we would do.\"\n\"Yeah\nthat's what I said.\"\n\"Who\nthe fuck did do it?\"\n\n Roxanne's feet\nscraped against the wind-swept ice like a dull butter knife against\ntoast. Each step became more laborious than the last. The trees that\nhad once protected this valley were nothing more than burnt stumps\nand withered husks, unable to halt the relentless gale screaming\nfuriously from the west. Although Roxanne had stowed her mask and\ndonned a heavy winter scarf in its place the snow-laden gusts cut\nstrait to her muzzle as if it weren't there at all; mucus, saliva,\nand sweat froze under the scarf, stinging Roxanne's face and making\nit feel rigid and stretched. With her head down she pressed into the\nwind until she unexpectedly banged her head against a beam.\nStaggering backwards she looked up to see a faded wooden sign that\nread 'Welcome to Lucid Brook: where dreams turn to gold!'\nJust beyond they sign Roxanne could see the town she long ago lived\nin, no longer the lively small mountain town it was, it was now a\ncarcass; bombed-out, vandalized and picked clean by scavengers and\ndefectors who lived outside of the influence of the government.\n\n This\njourney was not meant to be made by one\nRoxanne thought to her self as she pressed forward through the gloomy\nstreets. The sun hung low under the clouds and blinded Roxanne as she\nsurveyed the town. Cars and trucks where burnt out heaps in the\nmiddle of the road. Although all the once vibrant colors of the\nbuildings had been sun bleached by years of neglect they still seamed\nmore alive than the dull gray metropolis she had left behind. She\nfinally came to the building she had been seeking, and it still\nseamed to be intact. She stood on the stoop and stared at the door in\nfront of her. She ran her gloves over the grooves of the intricate\ncarvings on the door, and eventually they found their way to the\nknob. The handle and hinges where rusty and stiff, but with some\neffort they surrendered to Roxanne. When the door opened the setting\nsun once again poured into Roxanne's face; the entire back wall of\nthe house had crumbled away.\n\n Roxanne\nsobbed heavily as all the emotions she had been bottling since before\nshe left Beltzgrad let loose. \"Hi Paige,\" She said to the\nemptiness \"It's good to see you too, is Elsie home?... No, don't\ntell her I want surprise her\" Roxanne ascended the rickety stair\ncase and went to the first room on the left. Roxanne mimed knocking\nin the middle of the empty door frame. \"Hey E, it's Rox... I know I\nalready had my try today, I just want to spend some time with you.\"\nShe entered the room and set down her duffle bag and fiberglass box\nbefore looking about the barren floors. Roxanne went to the window\nwhere she could see the skeleton of a large A-frame in the distance.\n\"I saw your light on and I felt kind of lonely... can I spend the\nnight with you?\" Tears continued to pour from her eyes as she shed\nher winter garb. She kicked the duffle bag over to the corner where\nElsie's bed once was, then laid down on the cold ground next to it\nand embraced it. \"I don't care how long it takes me, one of these\ndays I'm going to catch you E; when I do you will be all mine, and\nI'll keep you forever. Good night, Elsie.\" Roxanne bit down on a\nstrap of fabric, then put her head down on the hard wood. She began\nto feel warm and drowsy as she was ready to embrace death in the\nplace where the person she loved most would many a time rest with\nher. But Roxanne would not die, not here and not now.\nChapter\nVIII: Plata O Plomo?\n\n Roxanne woke up\ninside of a body bag, and when she tried to move she found she was\nrestrained by zip ties. From beyond the bag she could hear two voices\ntalking.\n\"Where did you\nfind her, again?\" a deep voice groaned.\n\"She was in the\nresidential area of old Lucid brook.\" replied a nervous voice.\n\"How did she make\nit so far into Lucid Brook?\"\n\"I guess she\ndoesn't have a Geiger-\"\n\"Why didn't you\nreport her as soon as you saw her enter our territory?!\"\n\"Well she didn't\nlook like-\"\n\"I don't have time\nfor your excuses, get out of my sight!\"\n\"Y-... Yes, sir.\"\nThe sounds of footsteps was followed by a heavy metal door slamming\nshut and a moment of silence. The deep voice spoke again with a heavy\nsigh. \"Get her out of there\" Bright light spilled into the bag as\nit was abruptly unzipped, and a massive bull reached down and picked\nup Roxanne out of the bag. Roxanne began to struggle and scream\nthrough her gag as she was lifted up. \"Woah! Calm down! It's okay,\nyou're safe now!\" Shouted the tall muscular puma in the corner of\nthe dingy room. \"For fucks sake, don't just wave her around in the\nair! Put her down.\" The bull grunted and gently set Roxanne down in\na cold steel chair, and Roxanne looked around nervously as the bull\ncut the zip ties around her ankles. In front of Roxanne was a steel\ntable with the bulk of the possessions she had with her on it, and\nacross from her was someone else with a bag over their head. The puma\nin the corner took a long drag on his cigarette then he slowly\napproached the desk, and put his cigarette out in the ash tray on the\ncorner of the table. \"I'm gonna take the gag off of you, are you\ngoing to scream and shout?\" Roxanne shook her head nervously. \"Are\nyou sure? Because if you do you will get hurt.\" Roxanne nodded. The\npuma reached over and took the gag off Roxanne. She rolled her tongue\naround in her mouth and frowned, staring down at the steel table in\nfront of her. \"I need to ask you some questions and if at any\nmoment I think you're lying or withholding information from me Bruce\nover there is going make you hurt. Do you understand?\" Roxanne\nnodded again. \"No I need you to say that you understand.\"\n\"I understand.\"\n\n\"Also you will\nneed to do everything I tell\nyou otherwise Bruce is going to make you hurt, and trust me, when he\nmakes you hurt it's not pretty. Do you understand?\"\n\"Y-yes...\nI understand.\"\n\"Good. Let's start\nwith some easier questions. Who are you?\"\n\"M-My name is\nRoxanne Metz... My ident number is RA-.\"\n\"I'm not a cop, I\ndon't need to know your fucking ident number.\"\n\"S-Sorry.\"\n\"Please don't\napologize, just answer my questions. Do you know who I am Roxanne?\"\nRoxanne shook her head back and forth. \"I'm Alexi, I'm in charge\nhere, and keep things running. What is it you do, Roxanne?\"\n\"I used to work as\na technician at a hydroponic farm.\"\n\"What is a\nhydroponic farm tech doing way the hell out here?\" The tone of the\npuma's voice became much more serious.\n\"Well... I was\nrunning and-.\"\n\"Running from who?\nWhy?\"\n\"From Beltzgrad\nbecause-.\"\"From Beltzgrad? How did you even get out without\ngetting noticed?!\"\n\"With scrambles.\"\n\"Is that what\ncaused all that fucking chaos in Beltzgrad?\"\n\"Yes. The\nscrambles bounce signa-.\"\n\"I don't need to\nknow how they work, I have people who deal with that shit, right now\nI'm just trying to figure out if what you're saying to me is true or\nif you're just talking shit to me.\"\n\"It's the truth! I\nswear that-.\"\n\"Shut the fuck\nup.\" Alexi stated frankly while and scowling at Roxanne. The\nsilence hung in the air as Roxanne quietly whimpered. \"You see, I\ndon't know if I can trust you, for all I know you're just another\nfucking spy trying to squeal to the government about what is\nhappening here, and you might just be going through a fucking script.\nI like to know who is working\nfor the government.\" Alexi went over to the hooded individual\nacross from Roxanne and removed the bag from his head, underneath was\na wolf who had clearly been beaten for a while. \"Like Kevin here,\nhe's a government stooge who is either very ignorant of a large\nportion of his organization... or he's very new.\" Blood crusted\nKevin's terrified eyes and trembling lips and as he began to let out\na low groan Alexi lashed out and socked him square in the eye-socket,\nopening some of the wounds again. \"I'm not a big fan of unexpected\nguests, and well... to have two in one day has put me on edge, you\nunderstand. So how can I trust what you are saying is true? Because I\ndon't know if I have the energy to do this all over again, and\nhonestly I'd rather not have to hit people more than I have to.\"\nAlexi gestured towards Kevin as he twitched and blood dripped from\nhis face in a spasmodic tempo onto his knees. Terrified Roxanne\nstammered. \"T-the box I had with me!\"\n\"What\nabout it?\"\n\"It's\nfull of envy's art!\"\n\n\"Bruce!\nBox!\" Alexi snapped his fingers and pointed at the table, the bull\ngrunted and hoisted the box from the corner of the room onto the\ntable, and Alexi cut the bonds from Roxanne's wrists. \"Open it...\"\nhe said coldly. Trembling Roxanne grabbed her earring and grabbed the\nkey from it before carefully twisting it in the box and the lid\npopped open. Roxanne reached in to the box and removed a painting and\nunwrapped it gently and presented them timidly to Alexi. \"Holy\nshit...\" Alexi snatched the painting from Roxanne and examined it\ncarefully. \"How the fuck did you get these?\"\n\"I\nknew Envy.\"\n\"You\nknew Envy?\"\n\"She\nwas my lover...\"\n\"She\nwas\nyour lover? First, She? Second, Was?\"\n\n\"Yes... she... My lover, Elsie Vedas, was the artist known as envy,\nand she was arrested this morning. That's why I needed to escape\nBeltzgrad.\"\n\n\"Sorry, what was that name?\"\n\n\"Elsie Vedas? I usually called her 'E' though.\"\n\n\"How long have you supposedly known her?\"\n\n\"More than twenty years, since we were both about eleven.\" Alexi\ngrabbed an instant camera off a shelf in the back of the room and\ntook a picture of Roxanne, after the picture whirred out of the\ncamera he grabbed the box off the table. \"I'll be right back, if\nshe tries to run kill her.\" The bull nodded and Roxanne sat back\ndown. For a very long time Roxanne sat silently crying as she waited\nfor Alexi to return, when he did, he did not have Roxanne's box, and\nhe still looked unhappy. \"Well...\" he paused for a bit. \"Your\nstory checks out.\" Roxanne let out a loud sigh of relief. \"You\nknow I can't let you go though, right?\" Roxanne nodded. \"And if\nyou're going to stay here you are going to have to do everything I\norder you to do.\" Roxanne nodded again. \"Well then... I guess\nwelcome to the defector's haven.\" Alexi extended a paw, but as she\nwent to shake it he withdrew it. \"Except!... I still need to know\nthat I can trust you, and that you will follow my orders.\"\n\n\"I will I swear!\"\n\"Well\nI'm about to find out.\" Alexi went to the back of the room and\nretrieved a hammer from the shelf. \"Take this.\" he said extending\nthe handle of the hammer to Roxanne, she shook as she slowly grabbed\nit. \"I have no more use for him.\" Alexi gestured towards Kevin.\n\"Kill him...\" Alexi jerked his head backwards and Bruce stepped\nbehind Roxanne. \"I-i... B-but.\" Roxanne looked back and forth\nbetween the hammer in her hand and at Kevin. \"Kill him! That is an\norder!\" Alexi whispered sternly, Roxanne welled up and shook her\nhead slightly. Alexi clicked his tongue and Bruce quickly reached out\nat grabbed Roxanne's left hand. With one hand he jerked her ring\nfinger strait back towards her elbow. There was a loud crunching\nnoise as the bones in Roxanne's finger dislocated and broke in\nBruce's palm and she shrieked loudly, she fell to her knees and let\ngo of of the hammer, but Bruce continued to stand gripping her finger\ntightly. With another swift movement Bruce produced a pair of sheers\nand from his back pocket and began to cut into finger he was\nclutching. Bruce haphazardly pulled at Roxanne's hand to get a better\nangle with his sheers. The pain continued to intensify as each hard\ntug of the sheers cut through layers of skin and fur and eventually\ninto the sinew between her phalange and metacarpal bones. Thick\nscarlet liquid gushed from her hand down her arm and neck, soaking\nher fur and staining her shirt a deep burgundy. After six or seven\nrough yanks on the tendons the sheers closed with an audible 'snip'\nand Roxanne's finger came off into the muscular bull's hand.\nRoxanne's shrieking died down as she recoiled her wrist into her\nother hand and stared at in through blurry tears. She instinctively\ngripped her wrist tightly to try to get the bleeding to slow. Alexi\nsquatted next to Roxanne and spoke softly as she whimpered. \"I do\nremember telling you that it wouldn't be pretty if Bruce had to hurt\nyou... and I really\nhate\nit when people don't do what I ask the first time.\" He leaned over\nand picked up the hammer. \"You're losing blood at a pretty good\nrate, and I'm not too sure how long you can still stay conscious\nquite frankly.\" He gently rolled the hammer in his palm. \"If you\ndecide not to do what I tell you to do again, you will have a very\npainful death... So tell me, Roxanne, which one of you is going to\ndie first? You?\" Alexi held out the handle of the hammer to\nRoxanne. \"Or him?\" Trembling, she let go of her wrist and grabbed\na hold of the hammer again. Struggling to her feet she stumbled over\nto Kevin. He looked up at her and let out an emaciated wheeze. \"I'm\nso sorry.\" Roxanne sniffled, and the wolf serenely closed his eyes\nand gave a tiny nod as if to say 'I understand.' Roxanne's grip\ntightened as she raised the hammer high above her head and brought it\ndown on his temple in a sharp movement. The canine loudly whined and\ngasped so Roxanne struck him again, causing one of his eyes to come\nout of the socket and rest on his cheek as he coughed up blood.\nUnable to deliver a single definitive death stroke Roxanne began to\ndesperately strike him over and over, and his skull disintegrated\nunder the weight of the hammer. Each swing was accompanied by furious\nsquawks and crunching, and each backstroke was escorted by long\nribbons of cerise fluid and radiant white nuggets of bone. The vixen\ncontinued her assault until a cascade of slushy cerebrum was\ndribbling out of a sizable hole and the canine stopped convulsing.\nRoxanne stepped back and panted laboriously. She dropped the now\nblood drenched hammer onto the ground, and it gave a dull clatter as\nit tumbled on the concrete. It felt like there was a flame in the\nthroat as she stood in horrified awe at what she had done. Tears\nbegan to blur her vision and the vixen fell to her knee; she wailed\nmadly while twisting her fingers in the hair that just over her face,\ncaking her fingernails in blood, brain matter, and skull fragments.\n\"Quite the opulent showpiece you've made, girl, couldn't have done\nbetter myself.\" Alexi took a picture of the still warm corpse of\nKevin and looked down at Roxanne. \"Welcome to the Defector's Haven,\nRoxanne.\" Alexi handed the picture he just took to Bruce as he\nwalked out of the room. \"Get this to the comm room so they can\nspread it around. Drop her at the sick ward on the way, have her\npatched up.\"\n\n\n\n\n\nRoxanne lightly tugged at the IV in her arm. The saline, glucose,\nand morphine coursed through her veins as a short effeminate ram\nfinished wrapping her hand in gauze. \"oh you poor darlin'.\" He\nsaid in a sweet southern drawl as he fastened a metal clip on the\ngauze. \"You've been through so much. Ahm sorry about Alexi's\ntemper. It's best to stay on his good side.\" Roxanne rolled her\nhead on her under-stuffed pillow as a cool breeze wafted over her\nnude slightly damp body. \"Are ya'll sure you don't want a blanket,\ndarlin'? It wouldn't be no bother.\" Roxanne weakly groaned. \"I\nguess.\"\n\n\"alright sweety, rest up, an' feel better.\"\n\n\"Thanks... uh-...\"\n\n\"You can call me Andrew, sugar.\"\n\n\"Thanks Andrew... I'm so numb.\"\n\n\"That's jus' the medicine, honey, it's keepin' yeh from hurtin'.\"\n\n\"I meant mentally, not physically.\"\n\n\n\"I know that feelin' fer sure.\" Andrew gently pulled a sheet up\nto Roxanne's shoulders and pulled up a chair next to her. \"Ah been\nworkin' as the doc here long as it's been 'round. Seen a lot of faces\ncome an' go... seen a lotta good folk too nice to die croak due to\nnuthin' but bad luck and ah seen a lotta folk too mean to live\nsurvive things that by rights nobody shoulda' survived, and just like\nusing medicine to be numb rather than be in pain sometimes our brains\nare in so much pain they go numb rather than feel the pain.\"\n\n\n\"There's nothing left for me. I just want to die.\"\n\n\"I'm sorry 'bout yer losses, and I'm sorry 'bout yer situation... I\ncan understand why you might wanna not go on, but things are gonna\nget better... Ah'm no good at sayin' the right things to make someone\nfeel better. Mah brother Phil would know what ta say, he got that\nfrom momma... But at least I can be here fer ya... even if ye don't\nwanna talk.\"\n\n\"I hardly know you, though.\"\n\n\"Well shoot, that don't mean we can't learn more 'bout each other.\nWhy don'cha tell me more 'bout that girl you were head over heals\nfor? How would she try to cheer you up?\"\n\n\"Sometimes she'd sing to me...\"\n\n\"That's nice. Anything in particular?\"\n\n\"Usually folk songs her mother taught us.\"\n\n\"Ah'd love to hear one if'n yer willin' ta sing.\" Roxanne nodded\nslowly and took a deep breath before singing a simple tune:\n\nRed is the rose that by yonder garden grows/\n\nFair is the lily of the valley/\n\nClear is the water that flows from the Boyne/\n\nBut my love is fairer than any.\n\n\n\nTwas down by Killarney's green woods that we stayed/\n\nWhen the moon and the stars they were shining/\n\nThe moon shone its rays on her locks of golden hair/\n\nAnd she swore she'd be mine forever.\n\n\n\nRed is the rose that by yonder garden grows/\n\nFair is the lily of the valley/\n\nClear is the water that flows from the Boyne/\n\nBut my love is fairer than any.\n\n\n\nit's not for the parting that my sister pains/\n\nit's not for the grief of my mother/\n\nit's all for the loss of my bonny Irish lass/\n\nthat my heart is breaking forever.-\n\nRoxanne began to choke on tears, and was unable to continue. Suddenly\na masculine voice from behind the privacy curtain next to Andrew\nbegan to sing the final chorus.\n\nRed is the rose that by yonder garden grows/\n\nFair is the lily of the valley/\n\nClear is the water that flows from the Boyne/\n\nBut my love is fairer than any.\n\nRoxanne blinked a couple times. \"That voice sounds familiar!\"\nRoxanne reached for the curtain, but was unable to reach it. Andrew\nslowly pulled it back to reveal an extremely tired squirrel, his leg\nin bandages and suspended from a metal frame attached to his bed.\n\"Rus?!\" Roxanne gasped deeply.\n\n\"Hey, Rox.\" he waved lazily. \"I sure hope I'm not\nhallucinating.\"\n\n\"I can see her too Russel, sugar, yer not hallucinating.\" Andrew\nwent over to Russel and checked his IV bag. \"I take it y'all know\neach other?\"\n\n\"Roxanne is my sister's girlfriend.\"\n\n\"Well I'll leave y'all two alone so y'all can catch up.\" Andrew\ngave them each of them a kiss on the head. \"just holler if y'all\nneed me, and I'll be 'round lickety-split.\"\n\n\"Thanks, Andrew.\" Russel waved at Andrew as he walked out of the\nroom. \"So... Rox, what's new?\"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nChapter IX: Black and Blue\n\n\n The man sitting in\nthe center seat of the long table cleared his throat and pressed the\nrecord button on the tape recorder in front of him. \"Let the record\nshow that this the 15th hearing concerning Elsie Vedas has\nofficially commenced.\" The masked chairman banged his gavel on the\ntable. \"Bring her in.\" A nearby guard knocked on the steel door\nnext to him, causing a loud echo in the cold barren concrete room.\nAfter a moment the door ground open and a small entourage of soldiers\ncame through dragging the emaciated rabbit in on a leash; she was\nwearing nothing but a collar, black hood, and plastic handcuffs. The\nsoldier holding her leash stopped her before an aluminum chair.\n\"Sit!\" he demanded as he shoved her into the seat and violently\npulled the hood off her. Intense lights shone on her drooping head,\nmaking silhouettes of the five figures seated across the room as the\nchairman spoke again. \"Thank you, corporal, your men are\ndismissed.\" The man who escorted Elsie in waved his hand and the\nrest of his associates marched out of the room. Chunks of the\nrabbit's fur were missing leaving her badly bruised skin bare, the\nfrigid air gave the exposed skin goose bumps and made her breath hang\nin the air. \"I have the reports as per usual, sir.\" the officer\nheld up a folder.\n\n\"I'd prefer to\nhear the report's findings in your own words, corporal.\"\n\"I'd very much\nlike to see the report!\" one of the other board members objected.\n\"Very well,\napproach.\" The chairman waved the officer over.\n\"Yes sir.\" The\nofficer carefully handed the chairman the folder. He looked over it\nfor a moment or two before passing it down the table to the others.\n\"The report states-.\"\n\"Everything in its\ndue time, corporal.\" The chairman interrupted the officer.\n\"Yes sir.\"\n\"Could the\ndefendant please state their full name for the record?\" Elsie did\nnot respond, and after a long moment of silence the chairman loudly\ncleared his throat. The officer slapped her across the face. \"Speak,\ncunt!\" Elsie licked her dry lips; they were rough, chapped, and\nbleeding after being cut up by her sharp broken teeth. She spoke\nweakly in a defeated tone. \"My name is Elsie Nicole Vedas.\"\n\"Thank you.\" The\nchairman said in a calculating voice. \"Alright corporal, let's\nbegin with recent infractions.\"\n\"Since last\nhearing Elsie Vedas is hereby formally charged with fourteen\nadditional counts of sedition, obstructing the administration of\njustice, misprision of treason, misprision of a felony, aiding and\nabetting, and treason. She is also formally charged with two\nadditional counts of attempted suicide, and seven counts of\ndestruction of government property.\"\n\"Destruction of\ngovernment property?\" The board member holding the report chimed\nin.\n\"Blood stains\nthings pretty easily, sir, evidentiary pictures are on page\neighteen.\" He flipped through the packet and nodded. \"I see.\"\n\"The detainee also\ncontinues to be antagonistic and refuses to assist in creation of\ngovernmental promotion.\"\n\"Have you procured\nany intelligence on the whereabouts of the terrorists Roxanne Metz,\nRussel Vedas, Alexi Espina or the rest of defector's haven yet?\"\nOne of the board members queried.\n\"No, sir. All the\ninformation she has given us on that subject is fabricated.\"\n\n\"Have you tried\nany additional interrogation routines?\"\n\"We have tried all\nten approved interrogation routines already, sir.\"\n\"Is that what I\nasked corporal?\"\n\"No, sir.\"\n\"It would behoove\nyou to answer the questions I asked, corporal.\"\n\"Yes, sir.\"\n\"So have you tried\nany additional interrogation routines?\"\n\"Yes, sir.\"\n\"Elaborate.\"\n\"We have\nintroduced the use of electric discipline to our regular routines as\nwell as unhinging as an occasional stand-alone routine.\"\n\"Unhinging? I'm\nunfamiliar with that term.\"\n\"Allow me to\ndemonstrate it for you.\" The officer grinned under his balaclava.\n\"No! Please, no!\"\nThe terrified doe screamed as the officer yanked on the leash,\ndragging her to the ground, and cut her plastic handcuffs. \"Where\nis the defector's haven, you whore!\" He placed a heavy boot on her\nrear and leaned over, grabbing a hold of her wrist. \"Tell me where\nyour fuck buddy ran off to and this all ends! You can make it stop!\"\n\"I don't know\nwhere-!\" The officer quickly pulled back on her arm and with a loud\npop it came out of the her shoulder socket, she shrieked loudly as he\nlet go of her wrist and the limp arm hit the concrete floor with a\nheavy thud. \"Tell me where they are, you bitch!\" he leaned over\nand popped her shoulder back into place, and she shrieked again.\n\"Where are they?!\"\n\"I don't\nknow-ho-hooo\" she sobbed.\n\"Wrong answer!\"\nHe raised his hand to slap her and the chairman interrupted.\n\"Thank you,\ncorporal! Please have her seated again, this is not the time for a\nfull interrogation.\"\n\"Yes, sir\" The\nofficer breathed heavily as he dragged her back into her seat. He\nspat on her face, \"Cunt.\" and got ready for a back-hand before\nbeing interrupted again.\n\"Corporal!\nEnough!\" He froze and puffed briefly before standing up straight.\nIt was abundantly clear by their body language that several members\nof the board were extremely uncomfortable with the demonstration.\n\"Sorry, sir.\"\nOne of the board\nmembers coughed slightly before speaking. \"So is that all to, uh?\nUnhinging? Was it?\"\n\"Sometimes we\nleave the arm out of place for a while and it might reduce itself,\nbut more or less that's how that goes.\"\n\n\"Can that cause\npermanent damage?\"\n\"Doc says it\nshouldn't so long as we don't do it too often or pull too hard, but\nwe do it on her non-dominant arm just in case.\"\nThe chairman spoke\nup again. \"Why, in your professional opinion, do you think she\nwould fabricate information?\"\n\"For relief, sir,\nto appease the interrogator.\"\n\"Why do you\nthink, corporal, she wouldn't just give you correct information for a\nmore permanent relief?\" The board member with the file asked with\nan exceptionally articulate tone.\n\"Because-.\"\n\"Is it possible\nthat she honestly doesn't know?\"\n\"Yes, sir.\"\n\"How\nlikely?\"\n\"Very...\nsir, but it's still possible-.\"\n\"Thank you,\ncorporal.\" The board member leaned over and through his mask gave\nthe chairman an 'I told you so' look. The chairman cleared his throat\nand took a contemplative moment before speaking. \"Do any of the\nrest of you have further questions for the corporal?\" The\ndisruptive board member held up his hand with two fingers up, and the\nchairman turned off the tape recorder with a sigh. \"Go ahead number\nfour.\"\n\"Thank\nyou. I have quite a few questions for you, corporal Tartarus. Off the\nrecord.\"\n\"Sir...\"\n\"During\nwhat stages of Elsie's detainment did you receive the most useful\ninformation?\"\n\"During\nthe third fourth and fifth interrogations, sir.\"\n\"What\nroutines did you use during those inquiries?\"\n\"None...\nsir.\"\n\"Who\npreformed those examinations?\"\n\"Special\nagent Cooper, sir.\"\n\"What\ntone did he have?\"\n\"Tone?\"\n\"Was\nhe threatening or intimidating?\"\n\"No,\nsir.\"\n\"Would\nit be fair to say he was friendly to her?\"\n\"Yes,\nsir.\"\n\"Is\nCooper still working here at all?\"\n\"No,\nsir. With all due respect you know the answers to these questions\nalready.\"\n\"I'm\ntrying to illustrate a point, corporal, so just answer the\nquestions.\"\n\"Sir.\"\n\"How\nmany inquiries did he preform on Envy before he left?\"\n\"Six.\"\n\"Did\nhe say anything about the volume or quality of information at all?\"\n\"He\nsaid that she had likely divulged all the useful information she had\naccess to.\"\n\n\"What\nabout other detainees? Was he still working with some just before\nleaving?\"\n\"Yes.\"\n\"How\nmany?\"\n\"Five,\nsir.\"\n\"What\nabout the other six?\"\n\"He\nsaid he had gotten as much information he could from them.\"\n\"When\ndid Cooper leave? before or after you started using interrogation\nroutines?\"\n\"After.\"\n\"What\nreason did he give for leaving?\"\n\"Officially\nhe had transferred to a different facility.\"\n\"But\nwhat reason did he\ngive?\"\n\"He...\nhe said that we ruined the rapport he had with the detainees.\"\n\"Do\nyou enjoy torturing detainees, corporal?\"\n\"Interrogation\nroutines are-.\"\n\"Lets\nnot pretend this is something that it isn't, corporal Tartarus...\nthose 'routines' you've been using are torture.\"\n\"But,\nsir interrogation routines-.\"\n\"Yes\nor no! Do you enjoy torturing detainees?!\"\n\"Interrogation\nroutines are-.\"\n\"Corporal\nTartarus!\"\n\"Sir!\"\n\"Do\nyou enjoy torturing detainees! Yes or no!\"\n\"Yes!\nI enjoy my job!\"\n\"I\nwould argue that your job\nsimply inflates your ego and satisfies a sick lust far more than it\nbenefits the state. Convince me, and by extension the rest of the\nboard, otherwise.\"\n\"The\ninformation procured by interrogation routines has been integral to\nthe security of the state.\"\"Information such as-.\" the\nboard member looked at the packet and read aloud. \"a plot to bribe\nkey staff members at the Beltz estate to urinate and defecate in the\ncisterns of the palace's toilets whenever the matriarch or her family\noccupy said palace?\" He looked back up at the corporal and Elsie\nchuckled under her breath though her tears. \"Please enlighten me as\nto how information on such a sophomoric and quite frankly humorously\nunfeasible plot is integral to the security of the state.\"\n\"Well\nnot that particular plot, sir, but-.\"\n\"Perhaps\nyou mean her plot to recruit new vandals to her cause by-\" he\nlooked back into the report. \"quote 'politely asking pregnant women\nfor custody of their child once it reaches adolescents' unquote?\"\nElsie snickered louder than she had intended to, but hearing someone\nelse read her absurdities out loud was incredibly entertaining to her\ndespite the atrocities the corporal and his men had carried out on\nher. He scowled at her and swiftly punched her in the cheek, knocking\nher out of her seat again. \"Shut the fuck up, you cunty faggot!\nI'll fucking teach you to-.\" The chairman and the inquiring board\nmember shouted out at the same time.\n\"Restrain\nhim!\" and the guards in the room seized Tartarus, and after they\nhad wrestled him off of Elsie they placed him in cuffs, gagged him,\nand dragged him right up to the table.\n\"As\nfar as I can tell corporal\nyou are a PR time-bomb. You are a liability that is not nearly worth\nthe risk of having around. You were\nthe one who specifically requested this post after your promotion! It\nseems to me that you have been determined to be Ms. Vedas's personal\ntormentor since you arrested her.\" number four turned towards the\nchairman. \"I move that corporal Tartarus and his men be detained\nuntil such a time that punitive actions brought against them, the\nextent of which to be determined by us at a later time.\"\n\"I\nsecond that motion.\" A different board member affirmed. The\nchairman cleared his throat before speaking. \"Very well, it has\nbeen moved and seconded that we detain corporal Tartarus and his men\nuntil such a time that punitive actions be brought against them, the\nextent of which to be determined by us at a later time. Is there any\ndiscussion?\" The board members let out a low level murmur with no\nclear discussion happening. \"Very well, all in favor signify by\nraised hand.\" all five hands went up at once.\n\"All\nopposed like sign.\" and no hands went up. \"Seeing none the motion\ncarries unanimously.\" He banged the gavel. Elsie laughed manically\nand rhythmically tapped her finger nails on the aluminum seat. The\nentire room was so puzzled that everyone simply stared at the clearly\ndemented rabbit in the middle of the room. She started to sing to the\nbeat of her nails tapping. \"We played the drum!/ Men and\nwomen died because you lied,/ but we played the timeless drum!/ All\nthe government cowboys must come before the law!/ For all the world\nwill judge their broken promises, blankets, and bombs!\" One\nof the guards pulled Elsie back into her seat, and she glared at the\nofficer across the room as she continued to sing. \"I\nheard a haunting melody it was written for the rain./ A woman sang\nher tragedies away./ I heard a fighting melody it was written for the\nsun!/  And the songs\nof suffering people have grown strong/ from the broken promises,\nblankets, and bombs!\" The\nchairman banged his gavel and interjected.\"Ms.\nVedas, that is quite enough.\" She ceased singing but continued to\nchuckle sporadically. The chairman sighed and gave number four a very\nlong look, it was impossible to tell exactly what he was thinking\nabout due to the mask. Eventually number four looked back at the\nchairman and held his hand out as if he was holding a large invisible\norange between his thumb and forefinger, and the chairman nodded.\n\"Take corporal Tartarus to Ms. Vedas's cell until further notice,\nas of now he is under arrest and to be treated accordingly. As for\nhis men detain, isolate, and interrogate them them, no\nroutines. If they claim to\nsimply be following orders execute them in the morning, if they admit\nto wrong doing we'll send them to Tansy as a gift. As for Ms.\nVedas...\" The chairman glanced back at number four who subtly waved\nhis fingers dismissively. \"get her dressed and fed... after a warm\nshower. When you have her comfortable put her in a good cell with a\ncoloring book and a box of crayons for now... That's all, give us\nprivacy.\" The guards in the room quickly escorted the struggling\ncorporal and the cackling doe back out of the room. When the room was\nempty the chairman set the tape recorder to record again and let the\nroom stay silent for a long moment. \"I'll take that as a 'no' then.\nVery well, Elsie Vedas you are hereby found guilty of all charges\nfound in the initial report along with those in the following four\nreports, all other charges are formally dropped.\" He banged his\ngavel on the table. \"Hearing adjourned.\" The chairman stopped the\nrecording, and slumped back in his seat. \"Seems as though we have a\nfacility to restaff.\"\n\"Put\nCooper in charge.\" number three interjected.\n\"I\nagree. He deserves a big promotion, let him hand-pick his\nsubordinates pending our approval.\" Number two suggested.\n\"No\nmore sadistic beat cops.\" Three replied. \"Clearly that was dumb\nchoice.\"\n\"Came\ndown from the top; Beltz said 'he did good, treat him with a few\nfavours' and that basically just means 'kiss his ass and let him do\nwhatever for a while' but I think we're in agreement that he's used\nup all his goodwill.\" The Chairman explained.\n\"But\nwhat happens to envy now?\" two queried. The entire board turned\ntowards four and stared at him expectantly. He thought for quite a\nwhile and took a deep breath before he spoke.\n\n Andrew carefully\nset his food tray down across from Roxanne and took a seat on the\nparticleboard bench. Roxanne didn't even look up from her mug of dark\ncoffee, blankly avoiding looking at the paperwork spread out in front\nof her. \"Howdy, darlin'.\"\n\"Hey.\" Roxanne\nreplied weakly.\n\"More schematics?\"\nAndrew squinted trying to look at the paperwork upside down. Roxanne\nnodded slowly. \"Mind if I take a look?\" He put a finger down on\none of the papers near him, and she shook her head with a shrug. He\npulled the sheet close and examined the diagram. The sheet described\nthe mechanics of one of Roxanne's many gizmos, an updated version of\nher fiery squirt gun. The blueprint was undeniably magnificent in its\nsimplicity and immediately recognizable for its usefulness, yet for\nevery aspect of the build Alexi had notated imagined short comings of\nthe incendiary gadget in red ink. The asinine notes ranged from the\nbelief that the spray bottle nozzle was 'too hard to get a hold of\nwithout drawing attention' to the opinion that the child's toy that\ncomposed the base was 'not cool enough'. On the bottom Roxanne had\nnotated a references for which file to look in to find all the\nvarious versions of the same device she had drawn up over the last\nseven or so months. \"How many ah these projects are ya workin' on\nat right now?\" Roxanne somberly held up four fingers while still\nstaring into her coffee. \"How ya holdin' up darlin'?\"\n\"I'm-...\"\nRoxanne couldn't speak, she just sat with her mouth open unable to\nfind the words.\n\"... Still?\"\nAndrew raised an eyebrow as he speared a few choice leaves of his\nsalad with a fork. Roxanne nodded slowly, pulling her lukewarm mug\ncloser.\n\"Do ya'll\nsocialize with anyone 'round here, yet?\"\n\"Mostly just you\nand Russ.\"\n\"Speak ah the\ndevil.\" Andrew pointed over Roxanne's shoulder with his fork at\nRussel before biting the lettuce. Russel hobbled over with his own\nlunch tray in one hand and his cane in the other, the tray landed\nwith a clatter on the table causing a few neighboring patrons of the\nmess hall to look over before going back to their respective meals.\n\"What's up?\" Russel queried as he settled.\n\"Ol' Roxanne here\nstill ain't bein' sociable like with nobody.\" Andrew covered his\nmouth as he spoke with a full mouth.\n\"Well why not?\"\nRoxanne shrugged, and continued to stare down into her cup.\n\n\"I just-... I\ndon't know... I think everyone just hates me.\"\n\"Nobody hates ya,\nsugar, If'n ya'll don't believe me ya'll can ask Mica. She'll tell ya\nhonest.\"\n\"What? Why?\"\nRoxanne looked up at Andrew.\n\"She can't help\nbut to be honest with people she's known forever.\" Russel stated\nflatly. \"Mica is physically incapable of remembering more than six\nmonths at a time.\" Russel tapped his temple. \"As far as she's\nconcerned you've been here forever, Phil never existed, and I've\nalways been a crippled jackass.\" Roxanne gazed longingly across the\nmess at Mica as she ate alone.\n\"... Wish I could\nforget.\" She unconsciously began to cry, and Andrew and Russel sat\nin uncomfortable silence, unsure as to what to say. Mica looked up\nfrom her meal to see Roxanne seemingly staring at her and crying, she\nfroze mid bite and just stared back with a mix of inquiry and\ndiscomfort. She gave a stupid half-smile and waved her hand a little,\nbut when it became clear to her that by now Roxanne was spaced out\nand just happened to be looking in Mica's direction she turned back\nto her meal, hunching her shoulders and intentionally averting her\neyes from Roxanne. Roxanne spotted Alexi enter the mess out of the\ncorner of her eye. Quickly she wiped her eyes off and chugged the\nrest of her coffee. \"I should get back to work.\" She grabbed a\ngrubby rag from her back pocket as she stood up and hastily wiped out\nthe bottom of her mug. \"Ya'll don't gotta leave so soon, darlin'.\"\n\"It's fine.\" She\nsaid through her teeth.\n\"Are ya'll\nalright, sugar?\" Andrew and Russel gave her a concerned look\n\"I'm fine.\"\nRoxanne clipped the mug on a carabiner on her hip, and hastily\ngathered the papers on the table in front of her.\n\"Rox, clearly\nyou're upset-\"\n\"I'm fine!\"\nRoxanne snapped as she turned and began to leave the mess. Russel\nsnatched up his cane and tripped as he pursued her out of the mess.\nShe was fumbling with her locker when Russel finally caught up to\nher. \"Rox, wait.\"\n\"What do you\nwant?\" Roxanne continued to put the combination into her lock of\nher locker.\n\"I'm worried about\nyou, Roxanne.\"\n\"I wouldn't if I\nwere you, it's a waste of energy.\" She swung the door of her locker\nopen, nearly hitting the squirrel in the face with the thin metal\ndoor.\n\"Well it's not\ngoing to stop me from worrying about you.\"\n\"Why, though? I'm\na lost cause. A waste of skin and fur.\"\n\n\"I refuse to\naccept that, Roxanne! You are one of the smartest, most resilient\npeople I have ever known and-... and-... could you look at me?\"\nThey both stood stock still in silence for a long moment until Russel\nlost his temper at the vixen and slammed the locker shut again.\n\"Roxanne!\" He froze and stared at Roxanne as tears rolled down\nher copper cheeks. \"Rox, please talk to me.\" He gently put a hand\non her shoulder, and tried to pull her close, but instead she buckled\nat the knees as she turned and slammed into the lockers; Russel was\nunable to keep is balance and he fell over into the lockers as well\nand together they slid down the cold metal and sat on the concrete\nground. The squirrel pulled his morose vixen companion close and she\ngently leaned against his bust. \"Roxanne, I'm here for you. I know\nit's been rough ever since you got here, but something's clearly\nhappened in the past few days-.\"\n\"Hope.\"\n\n\"What?\"\n\"Hope happened.\"\nRoxanne began to sift through papers in her folder.\n\"Call me crazy if\nyou want, but it seems as though hope is usually a good thing.\"\n\"Not when it's\nliterally impossible to achieve the things that hope inspires.\"\nRoxanne finally found the piece of paper she was looking for and\nhanded it over to Russel. \"Then hope becomes an shot of pure\ndistilled anguish.\" Roxanne pantomimed opening a flask and taking a\ndrink. Russel read out loud from a highlighted portion of the sheet\nas he squeezed Roxanne close. \"Prisoner 25-3463-179 to be\ntransferred to facility R89 for recalibration... Is there something\nI'm not getting?\"\n\"They found her...\nThat's Elsie's ident number, Rus.\"\n\"Well that's great\nnews! We can intercept the transfer and-.\"\n\"That report was\nfrom a week ago, it's too late.\"\n\"Did you tell\nAlexi when you found out?\"\n\n\"I asked him about\nit as soon as I heard... he called me a dumb bimbo and put me in the\nwhite room for two nights, told me I needed to focus on my work more\nthan chasing a piece of ass that was retarded enough to get caught.\"\n\"Harsh.\"\n\"His words.\"\n\"Fuck him!\"\nRussel reached into his jacket and grabbed a real flask. He took a\nslug and passed it over to Roxanne.\n\"The worst part is\nknowing that she's still alive. I didn't expect her to be detained,\njust executed.\" She stared down into the flask without drinking\nfrom it. \"Why do you follow him?\"\n\"What choice do I\nhave at this point? Can't exactly go home again, you've seen the\nstate it's in.\" Russel gestured for the flask, and Roxanne handed\nit back.\n\"But I mean... in\nthe first place. If even you think he's a monster why did you join\nthe haven?\"\n\"Well the same\nreason so many people voted for Simonne, idealism. I guess I was\nenamored by Alexi's passion, and his tenacity. His ideals of having a\nsociety led by no one person, stripped of rules and animosity.\nHe would bang on about freedom so much you couldn't help but want the\nanarchy he preached.\" Russel took a small swig from his flask\nbefore stowing it again. \"But it's not long until you remember that\nthe prisoner's dilemma is a thing with real world applications and\nsoon enough everyone is fucking everyone else over just to get a\nslight edge. No doubt mom would have seen through Alexi's facade, she\nknew better than we do. 'You need a bit of everything' she'd say.\nRight now we're stuck with two extremes, it's like only ever getting\na choice between eating tasteless rice cakes or just pure sugary\nfrosting for the rest of your life; you can't survive on either alone\nand you'll get pretty sick of whichever you choose after not too\nlong.\"\n\n\"I didn't want to\nchoose, but Alexi took that from me when he pressed me into work\nhere.\"\n\"What did you\nexpect when running from Beltzgrad?\"\n\"I expected-... I\ndon't know... I expected to die on my own terms, in the home I loved\nthe most, the home that would help me escape... them.\"\n\"Your parents\nhated us.\"\n\"You\ndon't know the half of it, I still remember them arguing with mom-...\nwith Paige in our living room for hours. If there was one thing to be\nsaid for my biological parents it's that they made the adjustment to\nthe new government seem familiar and relatively easy.\"\n\"Is\nthat why you stayed, why you convinced Elsie to stay?\"\n\"I\nstayed because it was more stable, sure it sucked and we had to give\nup a lot, way too much... but there was always the prospect of things\nchanging for the better. We'd think 'maybe Oliver won't be so bad' or\n'maybe some of the rules will be relaxed soon', a few of them did but\nan equal amount of them were made more strict. We gave up so much\nfreedom for the illusion of safety.\" Roxanne wiped her eyes on her\nsleeve as she continued. \"But that didn't matter to us, as long as\nwe had each other. Even if we weren't allowed to live together\nbecause we were gay, even if we had to constantly worry about getting\narrested because of you and mom or some other arbitrary reason... we\nhad work, steady meals, shelter, but most of all I had her, and she\nhad me.\"\n\"They\narrested you because of me?\"\n\"Couple\ntimes... we had to sign a document saying that we fully rebuke you\nand were you ever caught we would testify against you.\"\n\"Would\nyou have?\" Russel inquired, but Roxanne remained silent. \"It's\nokay.\"\n\"I'm\nsorry, Rus.\"\n\"No,\nI'm sorry I was still a burden to even after I went into hiding.\"\n\"It\nwas life.\" Roxanne sat up and grabbed the radio transcript from\nRussel's hand and waved it slightly before stuffing it back in her\nfolder. \"This is death.\"\n\"That's\nit, I can't stand for this shit.\" He struggled to his feet.\n\"Elsie\nwould probably say that you can't stand period.\"\n\"Har\nfucking har. I may be a crippled, borderline useless, turd, but god\ndamn it I'm not gonna sit by and watch you suffer any longer.\" He\nbegan to stagger away.\n\"What\ncan you possibly do about it at this point, Rus? She's already been\nstuffed in a recalibration suit by now, it's not nearly as easy as\nintercepting a-.\"\n\"I'm\ngoing to make a psychotic, suicidal, rescue operation appealing to\nAlexi.\"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nChapter X: Dealing With the Brass\n\n\n\nThe humvee pushed through the muddy almost dry river bed with ease,\nthe low rumble of the engine mixed with birdsong carried through the\nforest. Russel was more determined than he ever had been his entire\nlife, and it showed in his face as he drove along. Roxanne nervously\nlooked around in the cabin as the world outside became a blur. In the\nback Mica was nonchalantly chewing on some jerky and loading loose\nbullets into magazines, inspecting each one before pressing it into\nplace. \"Try to relax, Rox, this might be your last chance for a\nwhile.\" Russel patted Roxanne on the leg.\n\n\"But what if-.\"\n\n\"No if's today, Roxanne.\" She gave a heavy sigh and nodded.\n\n\"Okay, no if's.\" She took a few more deep breaths, then looked\nback at Mica. \"Are you nervous, Mica?\" She shook her head and\ncontinued to load a magazine with bullets. \"Do-... do you see\nanyone right now?\"\n\n\"Well,\" She spoke with her mouth full, \"I see you two.\"\n\n\"Well do you see anyone... else?\"\n\n\"Do you mean am I hallucinating right now?\" She looked up and\nscanned her eyes back and forth. \"A little.\"\n\n\"Who do you see?\"\n\n\"Does it matter to you at all?\"\n\n\"I'm just wondering if you're going to be okay for what's coming.\"\n\n\"Well, a more appropriate question is have you ever fired a gun\nbefore?\" Mica tore the jerky in her teeth and swallowed what was in\nher mouth.\n\n\"Well my little-.\" Roxanne began to reach to her tool belt.\n\"I\nmean a real gun, not\none of your squirt pistols.\"\n\nRoxanne shook her head. \"I don't really want to shoot anyone.\"\n\n\"Perhaps you'd prefer a hammer, Rox?\" Russel grinned at Roxanne,\nbut she just scowled back. \"That was uncalled for, I know, but in\nall seriousness you should have a gun. Everyone else in the building\nis going to be armed, and this isn't exactly like picking up milk at\nthe the store.\"\n\n\nShe contemplated for a little bit and eventually relented, thinking\nto herself that even if she didn't intend to use the gun if it made\nRuss happy she'd do it. \"You're probably right.\"\nMica\npulled her bag aside and waved Roxanne to the back. \"Good, I'll\ngive you something easy to use.\" While Roxanne crawled back Mica\npresented a weapon that almost looked like a toy with its compact\nsize, sleek design, and plastic parts. Roxanne noted to herself that\nthis was the first time she'd actually seen Mica smile without\nsomeone first telling her a joke. Without making room for\ninterruption Mica began to excitedly describe the weapon in the same\nway an astrophysicist might passionately explain the life cycle of a\nstar; she spoke so fast that her words began running up against each\nother as she pointed out every little detail of the firearm. \"This\nis a personal defense weapon, more stopping power than an SMG, but\nmore compact and maneuverable than a carbine. It's fully\nambidextrous; if you're a lefty you hold it like this, a righty will\nhold it like this. Safety is this little wheel just below the\ntrigger; three settings: safe, single shot, full auto. To reload the\nmagazine goes on top here, then you pull on this little knob here and\nyour set to rock and roll. The magazine has 50 rounds in it; now that\nmight sound like a lot but with this little guy's rate of fire you'll\nget just over three total seconds of full auto fire for a mag. You'll\nhave three mags meaning you have a total of 10 seconds of shooting\nhog-wild, so try not to go too nuts. The spent brass drops out here,\nand because this gun was designed with fit guys\nin mind originally they didn't account for breasts; as a result hot\nbrass will hit your tits, it's much more annoying than dangerous so\nlong as they don't get caught on you. Also don't expect the enemies\nto stand out in the open waiting for you to shoot them. Even skilled\nfoot soldiers will probably only hit one shot out of 500 in open\ncombat. That said this won't really be open\ncombat, these facilities tend have a lot of small hallways and tight\ncorridors, so if a firefight breaks out it'll be more room to room\nand their numbers advantage will be a little blunted. If you just\nstay in cover a lot you should-.\"\n\n\"Mica!\" Roxanne interrupted, and Mica stared with her lips pursed\nlike a child caught with chocolate on their nose. \"Just... let me\ntry it out for a bit.\"\n\n\n\"Yeah-... yeah... okay.\" Mica chuckled and gently handed the gun\nand a clip to Roxanne. Mica wasn't lying when she said it was an easy\nweapon to use and after just a couple minutes of practice out the\nside window of the humvee, and some more pointers from Mica, Roxanne\nwas able to hit the things with a fair deal of reliability. Soon\nRoxanne returned to the front seat. The wolf in the back seat looked\nabout before speaking.\n\n\"So-.\" her voice cracked, she cleared her throat and tried again.\n\"So which of you has been part of the haven the longest?\"\n\n\"That would be him.\" Roxanne gestured to Russel.\n\n\n\"I defected right after Matriarch Beltz seized power.\"\n\n\"Have you been there longer than I have?\"\n\nRussel nodded. \"Indeed I have. You'd have been a pre-teen if you\ngot to the haven when I did.\"\n\n\"So how old does that make me?\"\n\n\"We guessed you're around sixteen or seventeen when we found you,\nso you'd be twenty-one or two now.\" The ruddy squirrel took a deep\nbreath and continued. \"You probably want to know about how you\nended up at the haven again, don't you?\"\n\n\"I-... yes. How did you know?\"\n\n\"You always always ask about your age before asking how we\nyou ended up there. Anyway let me tell you I guess.\" Mica sat on\nthe edge of her seat and listened intently.\n\n\"Some years ago we were raiding a caravan for supplies, pretty\nstandard operation for the most part. One of the supply trucks\nmanaged to break through our line, Alexi had me take Phil and Andrew\nin a jeep to pursue. The truck turned off the road and the trailer\nslammed into a tree.\" Russel pantomimed a trailer hitting something\nwith his hand. \"Pshh! And the doors swung open. We could see that\nthe trailer was full of these big metal boxes, figured they were\nmunitions or something so we continued the pursuit. Suddenly the\ntruck hit a huge bump. Ka-thunk! Doompf! One of the crates fell out\nof the back. Just then Schoom! Kshhhh! The truck slid into the ravine\nand crumpled on impact. We went and checked out the crate to find you\nin it; scared and bruised. Turns out some of the crates in the truck\nhad kids in them. You were the only one to survive. Andrew joked that\nyour fur looked like a chunk of mica, and the name kinda stuck.\"\n\n\"Very dramatic story.\" Roxanne said with a smirk, \"well\npracticed.\"\n\n\"Hey you tell it seven or eight times you'll know it pretty well\ntoo.\"\n\n\"It's nice that you still take time to tell it.\"\n\n\"Well just because Mica can't remember anything but combat doesn't\nmean that she doesn't have the right to know what we do about her.\"\n\n\"Well what about before?!\" Mica said urgently. \"Who am I?!\"\n\nRussel shrugged. \"Who knows?\"\n\n\n\nThe seasoned soldier sipped whiskey and smoked a cigar in the hazy\nwindowless office. The old rottweiler mindlessly turned a large coin\nover in his palm a few times, rubbing his thumbnail across the\nengravings. A knock came from his door, and he quickly stowed the\ncoin in his front pocket. \"Enter!\"\n\nA younger leopard entered, stood at attention, and saluted. \"Sir,\nMajor Boon reports.\"\n\n\nThe old soldier returned the salute. \"At ease.\"\n\n\nBoon relaxed and continued to address his superior. \"The cadets\nhave arrived, Colonel Nash.\"\n\n\"Thank you, major. I'll be out momentarily. Dismissed.\" The major\nnodded and waked out of the room. The colonel put out his cigar and\nstood up, and made his way to a full length mirror. He straightened\nout his jacket and grabbed his hat, gently tucking it under his arm.\nAfter inspecting his reflection for a minute he found it acceptable\nand walked out of his office.\n\n The\nclicking sound of the door to the colonel's office closing echoed in\nthe concrete hanger. Major Boon was standing by the door and shouted\nas the colonel entered. \"Atten-Tion!\" In the hanger there were\ntwo dozen youth in a line in military dress uniforms all standing at\nattention along with a captain on one end of the line. Colonel Nash\nsurveyed the boys and girls one by one as he paced in front of them.\n\"At ease.\" At once everyone in the room took a small step to the\nleft and clasped their hands behind their backs. The colonel cleared\nhis throat before speaking emphatically. \"This will not be an\naverage commissioning ceremony, but you are clearly not average\ncadets. Young soldiers such as yourselves are almost never\ncommissioned strait out of high school, unless they show exceptional\ntalent... to be offered a commission while still in middle\nschool is truly unprecedented.\" Colonel Nash turned towards major\nBoon and nodded. The major stepped forward and opened a box of small\nbrass pins and large coins, each coin had a decorative enameled\ndragon and each individual soldier's name engraved on it.\n\"Atten-Tion!\" the Colonel ordered and all the young soldiers\nclicked their heals together and stood at attention once again.\nColonel Nash went to each of the young animals; after pinning a brass\narrow on their lapel the rottweiler would hand them a coin as they\nshook hands, then he would salute them and they would return the\nsalute. After doing this each for soldier he returned back to the\nfront of the room. \"Congratulations lieutenants. At ease.\" Once\nagain the soldiers returned to their resting positions. \"Don't let\nyour heads get too big, though. While you are technically lieutenants\nright now you will still have a long road in front of you. A long,\ndangerous, painful road\nin front of you; and that is before\nyou come remotely close to seeing any combat, or\ncommanding any troops. I have a bit of an unofficial title would any\nof you happen to know it?\" The silence was uneasy and was lasting\nfar too long and the colonel began pacing again. \"Don't be afraid\nto speak up if you know. Someone here must\nknow what they call me.\" Again there was silence.\n\n\"They call you 'the crimson brain doctor' or-... or sometimes it's\n'red matter'... sir.\" A young wolf girl eventually spoke up.\n\n\"That is correct, lieutenant Charon!\" He spun on his heel. \"Do\nyou know why nebulous 'they' bestowed me with such a name?\"\n\n\"Well, weren't you a neurosurgeon before you joined the army?\"\n\n\"A neuroengineer, actually, I still am and I'm damn good at my\njob... Continue.\"\n\n\"We- uh- well it's said that you tested a new kind of weapon on\nprisoners, a-and several of them had their brains and spinal chord\nexplode into a red paste.\"\n\"Correct\nagain! That is what the rumors stated. The truth is far less\nterrifying. It was not a weapon, I did not test on prisoners, and\nnobody's brains exploded; I was attempting to expand the memory and\nimprove reaction times of the average brain, they were all willing\nvolunteers, and only in three out of a thousand tests did anyone's\nbrains turn to red goop, out of the other nine-hundred-ninety-seven\nthe worst they got physiologically speaking was a head-ache and a\nnose bleed. But the moniker stuck, and if you have a ferocious\nnickname and an overblown folk-tale about you then it tends to be a\nbit of a boon in the military.\" He patted the young wolf on the\nback. \"Relax, kid, you're doing good.\" Lieutenant Charon smiled\nsubtly and her commanding officer continued. \"The reason this story\nis relevant is because of what you volunteered for, lieutenants. I\nguarantee that all of you will hate me regardless as to whether this\nproject is successful or not, and I would be surprised if at least\none of you didn't try to kill me. Nobody wants\nto be hated, but it's just part of the price I'll pay. You will all\npay your own personal prices, and in return you will be better\ntrained soldiers than anyone else in the world.\" Colonel Nash waved\nhis hand and the bay door in front of the fresh lieutenants groaned\nopen. A half dozen forklifts wheeled in each carrying what looked\nlike a the unholy child of an iron maiden and a supercomputer. \"These\nare what we are tentatively calling knowledge cabinets. It's a highly\nrefined version of the very research that got me my nickname; it's\ndesigned to train every part of your mind and your body. You are\ngoing to be put into groups of four: One of you will be specialized\nin combat, one in strategy, one in interrogation, and one in\nespionage and subterfuge. In theory the spy and interrogator pass\nintel to the the strategist who will be the only direct support for\nthe fighter. The fighter will end up spending more time in the\ncabinet than the rest of the group combined, but that is not\nsomething to be happy about as you will soon find out.\" The\nrottweiler cleared his throat and waved over major Boon, who was\ncarrying a stack of files. \"I've gone on long enough for now. Today\nyou will get your assignments, and a little time to celebrate your\ncommissions, tomorrow you get to step into the cabinets. Understood?\"\n\n\"Yes, Sir!\" the entire line of young soldiers replied. The dog\nflipped open the top folder and read aloud.\n\n\"Good, step forward as I call your names. Group one is as follows:\ninterrogator... Duncan Deimos; spy... Peter Dolos; strategist...\nOphelia Voithós; and finally fighter... Zoe Charon.\"\n\n\n\nRussel, Mica, and Roxanne stood around an blown up photograph of a\nmassive hangar and dilapidated runway next to it. Russel pointed to\nthe fence outside the hangar. \"This will be your best possible\npoint of ingress to the grounds. You'll have half an hour to get\nthere before I start the distraction, but that should be plenty of\ntime.\" He moved his fingers around the hangar. \"Personnel\nentrances are here, here and here.\"\n\n\"What kind of locks do they have?\" Roxanne queried.\n\n\"I have no idea, probably just simplex locks? This is a minimum\nstaff facility, without a huge amount of security. It's supposed to\nlook abandoned, this is the kind of post you get as punishment.\"\n\n\"Right. Sorry.\"\n\n\"No need to be sorry. Honestly I don't know why Alexi doesn't want\nus to break in here to get Envy. It's a fucking gingerbread house.\"\n\n\"Doesn't? Don't you mean-?\" Mica cut in.\n\n\"I know what I said, Mica.\" He rested an arm on her. \"You're a\ngood kid, and the haven isn't doing you any favors.\"\n\n\"What do you mean?\"\n\n\"We're running... from all of it.\" Roxanne stared into the\nphotograph. \"The haven, the hierarchy, everything. Once we do this\nop we head west and don't stop until the car dies and our legs give\nup on us.\"\n\n\"What about me?\"\n\n\"Well Rox and E could use a bodyguard, I'm sure.\" Russel squeezed\nthe canid close. \"They'll take good care of you.\" Mica\noptimistically gazed deep in his eyes and nodded, suddenly she\nfrantically pushed back from the older squirrel, and her eyes darted\naround.\n\n\"Stop it.\" Her throat became hoarse as she choked on panic. \"It's\nnot true.\" Roxanne and Russel kept their distance as she curled up\nand clutched her pointy ears down against her temples. \"Stop it!\"\nHer loud blurt caused her companions to rush to her side.\n\n\"Shh! It's okay, Mica, it's not real.\" Roxanne hummed and stroked\nMica's back.\n\n\"Shut up, everyone just shut up!\" Mica rocked back and forth in\nher arms. \"If Voithós were here you'd-... No!... They wouldn't do\nthat!... I don't care if I die anymore, Dolos!... Stop asking me! I\ndon't know, Deimos!\"\n\n\"Mica, it's alright, everything is going-.\" Mica suddenly doubled\nover onto her knees, folding one arm over her belly and throwing her\nother hand on the ground, she wretched a couple times before before\nhalf-digested beef jerky and stomach acid spilled out on the ground.\nThe dark brown wolf sobbed a few times into the pool of vomit, as she\nran her sleeve across her lips to sop up the lingering puke.\n\n\"Are you happy now? Please... just go away and leave me alone...\nforever... I don't need you.\"\n\n\"We're going to take care of you, Mica.\" Russel said in a\ncomforting tone. \"This is the last mission you'll have to do.\"\n\n\"Everything's gonna be fine, Mica.\" Roxanne offered as Mica\npanted heavily. As she clamored to her feet she was helped by her\nsquirrel and fox compatriots.\n\n\"I'm getting worse, aren't I?\" Mica stared contemplatively into\nthe sky. Neither of the other two said anything aloud, but that said\nmore than if they had spoken. \"I-... I'll be fine... they're gone\nnow... let's do this while I have the reprieve.\"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nChapter XI: Red In Tooth and Claw\n\n\n\nThe crickets and cicadas chirped loudly as twilight set in. Mica and\nRoxanne were at the fence waiting for Russel's distraction to begin.\nThe old squirrel's words bounced around in Mica's mind. 'if\nyou get back to the car and if\nI'm not there, just go without me.' She wasn't used to that much\nvagueness in her orders. If I get back, and if\nyou're not there? Fuck you! You mean when I get\nback and when you're not there. It was in\nthat moment she realized why he had continually talked about Roxanne\nand Elsie taking care of her. Russel's distraction began and it was\njust as Mica had feared; She could see him in the imposing bomb suit\nthey had brought along, ambling towards the front gate with an\nequally intimidating light machine pressed against his shoulder. She\nknew he couldn't be accurate at a range further than a few meters, or\nmobile in any sense in that excessive protection, but clearly he\ndidn't intend to run. The men in the stout concrete checkpoint were\nso surprised that a terrifying tank of a man was suddenly at their\ndoor that they didn't have time to react before a storm of bullets\nrained in on them. The heavily armored squirrel pushed past the\ndoorway and hunkered down in the checkpoint as marines came from all\naround the compound to put the tiny fortified building under siege.\nThis was going to be as long as a firefight as possible if Russel got\nhis way. The young wolf had to summon all of her self restraint stop\nherself from rushing to help her friend.\n\n\nShe looked over at Roxanne; The vixen had been diligently cutting\nthrough the chain-link fence and had already almost gotten a good\nsized hole all the way around. She seemed un-afraid in a way Mica\nhadn't seen before, as if another mind had taken over to separate\nherself from feeling grief. As a chunk of the fence fell away Mica\nrefocused her mind and silently lead the charge into the complex. The\npair of canids kept low to the ground as the swiftly trickled across\nthe huge disused airfield; The soldiers in the compound were too\nfocused on the checkpoint across the courtyard to notice them. When\nthey reached the back security door of the hanger it was just as Rus\nhad speculated: a standard mechanical simplex lock on a massive\nfortified steel door. Roxanne reached to her tool belt and grabbed a\nheavy rare-earth magnet in a bag and slapped it haphazardly onto the\nside of the lock; after jiggling the handle a couple times the handle\ncaught and the latch slid open with ease. The irony of having a\nbreach-resistant bullet proof door with a lock that could be opened\nby anyone with a strong magnet and five seconds to spare was palpable\nto Roxanne. Once inside the dull grey complex a storm of footsteps\ncould be heard rushing through the halls towards the front door while\nthe high-alert alarms blared. Mica silently cocked a few guns and got\nthem in a readily reachable position. She tapped Roxanne on the\nshoulder and pointed to her gun; she sighed and rolled her eyes\nbefore also cocking her gun, and they continued through the soulless\nhalls. \"Do you know where you're going?\" The young wolf\nwhispered, and Roxanne responded with a yes-and-no head wobble.\n\n\n\"Not exactly, but chances are the recalibration suits are in the\nmain hanger, so if we just keep heading towards the center we should\nfind her.\"\n\n\n\"Alright if that's what you think is best.\"\n\n\n\"Do you have any better ideas?\"\n\n\n\"I don't, but if Voithós gets an idea I'll let you know.\"\n\n\n\"oh-...kay?\" Roxanne raised a skeptical eyebrow and nodded\nslowly. They went past office after office until they rounded a\ncorner and found themselves in an excessively wide hallway. At one\nend of the hallway was a heavy wooden commercial door and at the\nother was a simple double-wide swinging door. Roxanne looked at a\ncompass on her tool belt and turned towards the heavier door. She\npointed at it and Mica nodded and lead the way down the hall. This\ndoor had a biometric scanner next to it instead of the simplex locks\nthey've been seeing so far. Roxanne gave the door a little nudge, and\nshe could feel the tiny magnetic lock keeping it in place. \"Do\nyou know how to get through these?\" Mica queried as she took a\ncombat position and aimed her gun down the hallway and again Roxanne\ngave a noncommittal head wobble.\n\n\n\"Maybe, let's find out.\" Roxanne ran her black paws around\nthe corners of the scanner until one of her long nails caught a seam.\nShe gasped with delight, grabbed her multi-tool with her free hand,\nand folded the thin knife out with her teeth; she wiggled knife on\nthe scanner until it slid into the seam and the under side plate. She\ntugged at tool, but could feel the blade begin to bend. \"hmm.\"\nshe pondered for a second and looked around. \"oh! Do you mind if\nI-?\" She tapped her finger on the combat knife on Mica's hip,\nshe shook her head and the vixen carefully removed it from the\nscabbard. \"Thank you.\" She slid the much longer and thicker\ncarbon steel blade into the scanner, down to the bolster; she gave it\na couple tugs and, satisfied that it was holding strong, she walked\naround the other side of the scanner. With her back to the wall she\nput a boot against the knife's handle and pushed hardily. The tiny\nclips holding the side plate in place snapped with a loud pop and it\nfell along with the knife on the linoleum with a clatter. The vixen\nrushed over and slid the survival knife back into its sheath on her\ncompanion's hip. \"Thanks.\"\n\n\n\"Sure thing.\" Mica looked over as Roxanne sorted through\nthe wires until she found a usb port. Roxanne fumbled with a thumb\ndrive from a pocket on her tool belt. \"Is that like an\nelectronic lock-pick?\"\n\n\n\"Not exactly.\" The fox popped the thumb drive into the usb\nport and it whirred for a second and the scanner went black. \"It's\na simple board full of capacitors that dumps a ton excess energy into\nthe system and the motherboard, wherever it is, just fries.\"\nWhen she reached for the thumb drive she hesitated. \"I think\nI'll just leave it in there.\"\n\n\n\"Buh-? Why?\"\n\n\n\"Hopefully it'll start a fire somewhere in the complex...\nsomewhere not right here.\"\n\n\n\"Uh-... okay?\"\n\n\nRoxanne pressed against the door again and the magnetic lock, no\nlonger having any power, gave way. \"Alright, let's go.\" The\npair of canids pressed through the doors and just on the other side\nwere rows upon rows of huge copper-colored upright coffins, each\nattached to a stack of servers and each server further connected to a\nbank of monitors at the far end of the massive atrium; the wires\nrolled together in a single thick rope of insulated cables. Mica's\nfelt a sharp pain in her temple almost instantly upon seeing the\nrecalibration suits, and he knees stiffened up making it difficult\nfor her to move. Her voice trembled as she spoke. \"Th-these...\nTh-these a-are-...\"\n\n\n\"Recalibration suits.\"\n\n\n\"No!\" She put her palm against one of them. \"This is a\nknowledge cabinet.\"\n\n\n\"A what?\"\n\n\n\"We called these knowledge cabinets!\" Her crown buzzed as\nthe pain continued to radiate down her spine.\n\n\n\"What? Who's 'we'?\" Roxanne stepped forward and put a\ncomforting hand on her shoulder.\n\n\n\"I don't know! I don't know how I know this!\" She punched\nthe recalibration suit in frustration and left a sizable dent in the\nside.\n\n\n\"It's okay, Mica. We need-.\"\n\n\n\"How do... what's the point of... what did you call them?\"\nIt felt like someone was slowly inserting a pair of knives made of\nice into her skull.\n\n\n\"Recalibration suits?\"\n\n\n\"Yeah... what do- or... why-. How?\" Mica stammered and\npressed her forehead onto the large metal contraption in an attempt\nto soothe her anguish. Roxanne stepped back and gazed at the huge\nmachine and gave a heavy sigh.\n\n\n\"Nobody knows for sure how they work, but what we do know is\nthey somehow erase parts of your brain and replaces what it erased\nwith information for whatever job they want to use you for.\" She\nwelled up slightly and shook her head. \"They take your surname\nand give you a label in its place. They take away everything that\nmakes you you bit by bit, and sometimes they don't even replace it\nwith anything but white noise and psychosis... The longer Elsie's in\none the less of her there is until everything is gone.\" She\ngagged on desperation. \"A-and that's why I need to find her\nwhile there's still something to be found. Please come along and help\nme, Mica, before troops show up in force and make Russel's sacrifice\nmeaningless.\"\n\n\n\"I-I... I can't stay here... These awful things make me hurt.\"\n\n\n\"Mica, please-.\"\n\n\n\"I'll distract them.\"\n\n\n\"What?\"\n\n\n\"Draw them away from you, let you find Elsie, and get out.\"\nMica stumbled towards the door they just came in from and slowly\nfound her footing. \"I'll meet you by the car.\"\n\n\n\"But what if-.\"\n\n\n\"Then you leave without me.\"\n\n\n\"I can't do-.\"\n\n\n\"You can and you will if you don't want another person who cared\nabout you to have had a meaningless death.\"\n\n\n\"Mica, please-.\" But it was too late, the wolf was already\nout the door and down the hallway.\n\n\nNot bothering with being quiet or carefully getting through the door\nlocks anymore Mica simply kicked down doors and fired a few shots\ninto the ceiling. Her ears worked back and forth and she could hear\nsoldiers barking orders and shuffling to get into defensive\npositions, and she would adjust accordingly; wheeling around\nunoccupied corners she would fire through the thin walls while\nsprinting at top speed, her harassment continually unbalanced the\nsoldiers and forced their movements into a compact ball. A few of the\ntroopers became separated from the rest of the group and Mica\npunished them for their refusal to fall into line with blind shots\ninto their unarmored knees and thighs, causing them to collapse with\nshrill screams. Useless cattle. she thought as she pulled the\npin on a grenade. Where did you learn to fight? The playground?\nThe brown and tan mass of armed animals came into view as she passed\na narrow hallway. Maybe you will remember hot potato, then.\nThe baseball sized bomb rolled out of her fingers and into the group\nof soldiers, hitting a bewildered deer on the nose. Just as Mica\ncleared the opening she dove onto the ground and covered her ears;\nthe grenade detonated, setting bits of shrapnel to tear through the\ncolumn of men and walls, leaving tiny holes in the plaster in the\nhallways adjacent to the blast. Mica sprang to her feet, and sprinted\npast the hallway to see if anyone was still around. She was pleased\nto see that anyone not killed in the blast was injured enough, or at\nleast smart enough, to stay on the ground.\n\n\nThe pain the recalibration suits gave her had receded and the danger\nof the situation made her feel comfortable in her body again. She\nchuckled to herself and hopped on her toes a couple times as and\nadrenaline coursed through her body. \"Find the commanding\nofficer, put this to an end.\" Voithós's voice offered in her\near. Mica nodded and grabbed one of the more coherent injured\nsoldiers, a short groaning chipmunk who caught pieces of shrapnel in\nhis shoulders. She forcefully dragged him to his feet and he let out\na pained cry as she pinned one of his arms behind his back. \"Take\nme to the-\" She gave a robust cough and her voice began to\ncrack. \"Take me to the CO.\"\n\n\n\"Whu-.\" She twisted his arm further, making him cry out\nagain.\n\n\n\"No talking, no screaming, only leading.\" She pressed her\npistol against the nape of his neck. \"Move... or die.\" He\nled her around a couple corners until they came to a windowless plain\nlooking wooden door. \"Through here?\" He nodded. Mica\ndragged him a couple steps back and shoved him forward through the\ndoor, and dove off to the side. Bang-bang-bang-bang-bang!\nLead smashed into, and through, the soldier's face and neck and he\nfell with a lifeless thud. .44 magnums rounds. She instantly\nidentified the shots fired. Good aim... Likely a revolver, let's\nsee if he has another round in his chamber. She deftly grabbed a\npacket of dried meat from her chest pocket and tossed it across the\nbroken door. Bang! Another bullet zipped through the\nbaggie, sending jerky everywhere. The brown wolf's ear twitched as\nshe could hear the sound of spent cartridges jingling on the ground.\nWith incredible speed Mica bolted into the office with her gun at the\nready. She fired a few quick rounds on either side of the desk at the\ncenter of the room and shouted. \"Throw out your gun, and put\nyour hands up or the next round is going to going through your\nskull!\" After a second the officer hidden behind the desk tossed\nhis revolver out the side, it skittered across the floor, and slowly\na pair of onyx paws rose up. \"Put your hands on your head and\nstand up.\" Mica rasped. The finely dressed officer carefully\ncomplied, and rose to his feet. As he silently turned around Mica's\neyes widened and the pain began to return. He gave out a sharp gasp.\n\"Zoe?\"\n\n\n\n\nSuddenly finding herself alone Roxanne froze in fear. After a minute\nof dumbfounded staring she managed to shove her emotions back down\ninto her passive mind and let the useful part of her brain take the\nlead again. She quickly ran down to the bank of monitors and counted\nherself lucky that the door lock was run on a different computer\nsystem than the one that ran the recalibration suits. Projections of\nall the prisoners minds were on monitors. Roxanne's amber eyes jumped\nfrom screen to screen, then suddenly they stopped on one particular\nmonitor. The left side of the screen showed a pair of golden paws\ndigging a rectangular hole in the ground, while the other side showed\nfuzzy flashes of images of golden arms resting on the shoulders of a\nyoung red fox; a blurry gymnasium full of youthful silhouettes gently\nbobbed in the background, and the allusion of a mirror ball rotated\nhigh above. In the top-right corner of the screen, in bright red bold\nletters, the word overwrite silently flashed over and over.\n\n\nRoxanne became furious and she loudly cried out as she seized the\nmonitor and tore it off the stand, throwing it on the ground she\nbashed the monitor repeatedly with her bare fist until her knuckles\nwere dripping with sanguine fluid. She puffed and grabbed at the cord\nfrom the monitor, violently yanking at it. The shiny black tendon led\nback to the thick rope of wires, and Roxanne frantically began to\nfollow it; snapping the wire helter-skelter out of its plastic\nrestraints. She had to squeeze behind recalibration suits to continue\nfollowing the wire, occasionally getting her feet tangled up in the\nservers and momentarily losing her balance before continuing.\n\n\nFinally the fox found the server that was the origin of the\nmonitor's cable; hurriedly Roxanne scrambled over the server and\nfound herself stood in front of the great metal sarcophagus that\nenclosed her sweetheart. The deep pop of a small explosive elsewhere\nin the compound made her pause. She desperately hoped that the noise\nwas a result of fire started by her killer USB, or at the very least\ncaused by Mica and not used on her. Roxanne took a deep breath and\nstepped up to the recalibration suit, unsure where to begin, but\nhesitant to just start pressing buttons; after all when dealing with\na machine that directly tampers with someone's brain it's best to\nexercise caution.\n\n\nShe inspected the panel of buttons and switches attached the\nrecalibration suit, carefully inspecting each label she figured that\nthere wouldn't be an obvious 'stop' button but she was perturbed to\nsee that all the of buttons and switches had vague single word\ndescriptions like 'convert' 'assault' and 'warm', and sometimes they\nwere obscure words that she was unsure of; words like 'guerdon'\n'manumit' and 'meliorate'. Her fingernails ran over a switch marked\n'unseal' on one side and 'hide' on the other, and with a deep breath\nshe pressed her thumb against it and flipped the tiny metal switch\nfrom hide to unseal. The doors of the suit hissed and groaned as they\nslowly slid open, and thus Elsie was put on display.\n\n\nThe rabbit seemed completely unaware of her surroundings, her face\nwas framed by a metal brace as she hung there gently mumbling with\nher eyes darting from side to side behind closed lids. She would\noccasionally convulse in her restraints as needles on tiny pistons\nwould reach out and poke at particular muscles, training her body how\nto do her new menial job. As happy as Roxanne was to see the lop she\nstill had no idea how to get her out, but she knew she wanted the\nmachine to stop no matter what. First she took the fencing tool off\nof her tool belt again and deftly snipped all the wires from the\nserver to the coffin causing lights inside it to turn off and warning\nlights on the control panel to start flashing; then she tore off her\njacket, wrapped it around her still bleeding fist, and began striking\nthe exposed machinery inside, shattering the plastic walls and\nsnapping needles off their bases. The metal restraints that held\nElsie in place groaned as Roxanne broke the walls around them and\nbegan to violently tug at them, rocking the whole machine; but\ndespite the damage she had done and the vigor with which she pulled\nthe suit refused to surrender Elsie. Sweat from the fox's tawny brow\nmixed with the tears on her cheeks and the salty solution caught the\ncorners of her lips, staining her palette with the flavor of grief.\nHer muscles screamed to stop, her lungs scraped and seared, and her\nlimbs quaked and tensed; yet she continued to try. As her body\nsurrendered to fatigue so did her mind. Roxanne embraced Elsie, just\nable to get her arms around her slender torso she rested her head on\nher chest and squeezed tightly with heavy sobs. Speaking softly she\nconfessed to her unconscious lover.\n\n\n\"What have I done, E? I've gotten everyone killed for nothing...\nOh what plans we had for the future. Somewhere far from here we'd\nlive. You... me... Mica... Andrew... You'd have liked Mica and\nAndrew, too... You are so loved, E. Rus willingly died for your sake,\nand Mica... poor sweet Mica... So skilled, yet so tortured by a past\nthat nobody knew... She didn't even know you apart from stories we'd\ntold, but even she loved you enough to die for you... and now it's\nall gone to rot. All I can do now is be with you one last time.\"\nRoxanne stepped further into the recalibration suit and bit down hard\non Elsie's ear for a quick moment. \"How I've missed the feel of\nyou in my arms, and the taste of you on my lips.\" The foxy woman\npressed her face into the lop's shoulder and waiting to be taken away\nor shot. Suddenly all the alarms in the facility ceased and the\nspeakers crackled to life. A deep authoritative voice came through.\n\"Stand down, everyone stand down!\" There was a long\npause before it spoke again. \"Ms. Metz? I know it's you, and I\nknow you're in the compound... I would very much like to speak with\nyou. I'll be waiting in my office... One of my men is on his way to\nyou and he will escort you unharmed when you're ready.\"\n\n\n\nRoxanne dragged her feat as the soldier wordlessly escorted her up\nto the officer's suite. She periodically looked over her shoulder,\nwistfully longing for Elsie's company again. They finally came to a\nwooden double door that had its latch broken. The soldier stood at\nattention next to the door and saluted at Roxanne. \"Is-... is this\noffice?\" The soldier didn't say anything, instead the young hound\nput on an expression of pure contempt and rolled his eyes. Roxanne\ngently knocked, but even with that little force the door swung\nuneasily on the hinges and lightly rapped against the frame.\n\n\n\"Please come in!\" the deep voice called from within. Inside the\noffice stood a tall panther dressed in a fine uniform, on the desk\nnext to him was a large flat panel monitor with video of an old\ndoberman man shown from the waist up; the doberman was also dressed\nin a fine uniform, and he was drinking a dark liquor out of a rocks\nglass and holding a smoldering cigar. Mica was unconscious and tied\ndown to the chair behind desk. As Roxanne walked into the windowless\nroom her heal caught on something wet and slid forward, making her\nlose her balance for a moment. She looked down to see a pool of blood\nthat trailed off into the nearby corner where a faceless corpse lay.\nTaking a deep breath she continued into the office. The doberman\noffered his greeting through the screen. \"Ms. Metz, I presume! I'm\nGeneral William Nash, and this is Major Duncan Deimos.\" The slender\npanther nodded a greeting.\n\n\"D-did you just say Deimos?\" Roxanne's gaze shot back and forth\nbetween the major and the general.\n\n\"Indeed I did. The major was just telling me about the unauthorized\ntrouble your little group was giving him, why do you ask?\"\n\n\"That's... that's the name that Mica gave to one of her\nhallucinations.\"\n\n\"Mica?\" The deep voiced panther inquired. Roxanne pointed over at\nthe passed out wolf in the chair. \"Her?\"\n\n\"Yes. That's Mica... at least that's what we call her.\"\n\n\"Her real name is Zoe Charon.\" The doberman cut in. \"don't\nworry, though. She'll be fine.\"\n\n\"What are you planning to do?\"\n\n\"About what?\"\n\n\"Well... I don't know. I just thought that's one of the things\nyou're supposed to ask when confronted with a villain.\" Roxanne's\navoided eye contact as much as possible.\n\n\"You think I'm the villain of your story?\" William chuckled. \"If\nthat's what you want to think of me then that's fine... Well I\nsuppose if you want my plans in one quick sentence then I'm planning\nto do is send Zoe back to the haven and have give Alexi a strong\ntalking to.\" Roxanne shifted uncomfortably in her shoes, and\nremained silent. \"You must be wondering how I know Alexi and why I\nmight be talking to him. Well you see the haven is an illus-.\"\n\n\"I don't care.\" Roxanne said coldly.\n\n\"But you were the one who asked about my plans.\"\n\n\"I don't care though.\" She turned around and faced the door she\ncame into. \"I just don't care about anything anymore. All I want is\nElsie.\"\n\n\"Well then you should be thanking me.\"\n\n\"Why on earth would I do that?\"\n\n\"I saved her from torture, and right now I'm freeing her mind of\nthe memories of that torture.\"\n\n\"Along with the memories of everything else.\"\n\n\"It's an unfortunate side-effect, yes.\"\n\n\"What about me?\" Her head sank.\n\n\"I'm not sure yet... You'll be detained for a bit while we figure\nthat out. Something relatively comfortable, and for no more than a\nfew weeks.\"\n\n\"Can I see her one last time?\"\n\n\"I suppose. If you think we're done here I'll have Major Deimos\nEscort you to her suit again.\"\n\n\"... Tired of these escorts.\" Roxanne walked out the door and\nstarted back to where she just came from. The major ran out the door\nand caught up to her in no time, but he simply walked beside her. \"Go\naway.\"\n\n\"I can't do that.\"\n\n\"... do you know how much you torture Mica?\" Roxanne shot Duncan\na sideways glance.\n\n\"What?\"\n\n\"You must have really fucked her up back in the day for her brain\nto name that particular hallucination Deimos.\"\n\n\"Zoe was one of my best friends, actually.\"\n\n\"If you being friends makes her fear your name so much that she\nflinches at the mention of it then I'd hate to see what you do to\npeople you think are enemies.\"\n\n\nDuncan scowled and spoke through his teeth. \"If you're not careful\nthen you'll find out.\"\n\n\"What?\" Roxanne stopped mid stride and turned towards the\npanther.\n\n\"Nothing.\"\n\n\"No you said that I'll find out what you do to enemies. Well let me\ntell you something, shit-head. There is nothing else you could\ndo to me at this point. My entire life I've been so fucking passive,\nbut now I don't have anything to lose to monsters like you.\" She\ngave him a hard shove.\n\n\"I'm not a monster.\"\n\n\"Well you're certainly not a fucking person! At this point there is\nnothing that you could do for Mica to even stand to hear your\nvoice or see your face again!\"\n\n\"Her name is Zoe-.\"\n\n\"No! She hates everyone that called her that! To those who\nactually care about her she's called Mica! Not like you'd give a shit\nyou fucking monster!\" She shoved him again.\n\n\"... I am not a monster.\"\n\n\"Call yourself whatever helps you fucking sleep at night I\nguess! You know who doesn't sleep easily at night, though?! Mica!\nConstantly she's tortured by monsters named Dolos and Deimos!\"\n\n\"It would be wise to watch your tongue-.\"\n\"Or\nwhat?! You'll kill me?!\" Shove!\n\"Go the fuck ahead!\" Shove! The\nvixen stared directly into the tall panthers narrow mustard eyes, and\nhe remained motionless. She inhaled deeply and spit a viscous loogie\nin one of his eyes. Flinching he wiped his eye and stared at the\nphlegm on his fingertips. \"That's for all the thing's you've done\nto everyone you've ever met. You...\" She leaned in close and\nwhispered menacingly. \"monster.\"\nWith a lightning fast movement Deimos's hands were suddenly wrapped\naround Roxanne's neck, and squeezing tightly.\n\n\"I.\nAM. NOT. A. MONSTER!\"\nHe bellowed and shook the fox in his hands, gripping tighter each\nshake. The edges of her vision became dark and everything was getting\nblurry as her brain was running out of oxygen. Roxanne's hands\nflailed reflexively and suddenly caught on something plastic hanging\nfrom her hip; her gun! Fumbling, her hand found a hold on it and she\nrolled the plastic safety on the bottom of it with her middle finger.\nShe brought the firearm into his gut and squeezed the trigger. With a\nsound similar to someone shuffling a deck only much louder all fifty\nrounds of the clip were unloaded into Deimos's abdomen, turning it\ninto hamburger. Yet as he breathed his last breath the muscles in his\nhands refused to release Roxanne. She could hear the muscles in her\nneck straining under the pressure of the muscular panther's powerful\ngrip, and the thyroid in her neck creaked and popped. The world faded\nfrom her sight and soon all was black once and for all.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nChapter\nXII: Colorless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously\n\n I\nwas asked to come to the facility at the behest of General Nash some\ndays ago, but it seems as though that between then and now a small\ngroup of defectors had attacked. There was a row of graves being dug\nby some of the facility's fresh calibrates near the edge of the\nforest and I insisted on seeing the whole thing up close. The driver\nsaid that seeing such things up close wasn't for suits, but my\ncuriosity simply would not be quashed by a brush-off like that.\nThere's a reason I was employed as an auditor and my stubborn\ninsistence to see things with my own eyes is one of the things that\nmakes me so good at my job. After some convincing he finally relented\nand pulled over. The calibrates all wore the same jumpsuits and\nworked in diligent silence. The compound's chaplain was out blessing\nabout a dozen and a half dead soldiers, each carefully wrapped in a\nflag and rested on a cot. Several yards away a single calibrate was\ndigging a pair of graves that was clearly separate from the others.\n My\ncuriosity adequately piqued I wandered over to the rabbit woman\ndigging the graves and watched for a while. I don't think she noticed\nme the entire time she was digging. It was fascinating how efficient\nthese calibrates are at the jobs they're calibrated for. I'm guessing\nshe had some extremely heavy recalibration because she could barely\nremember her first name when I asked her. Soon a young troop rolled a\ndolly with two corpses on it next to the grave and shouted at the\ncalibrate in the hole; told her to hurry up and bury the two poor\nsouls on the hand truck. The word 'scum' came up a surprising amount\nof times for a three sentence, one-sided conversation. On the\nhand-truck was what I would estimate as a male squirrel in his late\n30s, it was hard to tell from all the charring he had, and a fox\nfemale of about the same age who must have died in a much less\ncatastrophic way. Finding her hole adequate Ms. Undertaker pulled\nherself out of the hole, but she hesitated when she saw the fox\nwoman.\n\n I\ncan't say I've ever seen a calibrate cry like that. She sat and\nstroked the woman's ears while weeping. I asked her what was wrong\nand she claimed to know the fox woman, yet could not remember why. I\ntried my best to console her, but she was inconsolable, simply\nrepeating \"what does it mean?\" over and over. Eventually one of\nthe misters came over to take her away, but she refused to let go.\nWhat does it mean? What does it mean?!\nOver and over again she fanatically shouted until the mister finally\ngot her back into a truck to go back to the compound. A different\nundertaker was sent over to finish the job, and he dutifully, if\nunceremoniously, proceeded to bury the pair. My driver told me we\nwere running late so we got back in the car and set out.\n\n The\nrabbit undertaker stared out the back window of the truck in front of\nus as it bounded along the road. My driver asked if I was satisfied\nwith what I saw, but I couldn't say yes or no. I could see the rabbit\nwoman was desperately wanting to see the fox again, and she was still\nasking 'what does it mean?'. The question will likely haunt me for\nthe rest of my life. At the compound I was greeted by the general via\na satellite link, and after we dealt with business I relayed the\nwhole encounter to him as it was still nagging me. He mentioned that\nif he was thinking of the right calibrate that she has had a\nparticularly rough few months. As for her question he mused: \"What\ndoes it mean? Not a thing, not a goddamn thing at all.\" \n"}